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I am a graduate
May. 23rd, 2004 02:39 amIn around three and a half hours I'll be departing for the airport. Many hours after that I will be back in New York at long last.
I think Japan has been a sort of growing experience for me. Maybe it's just egotism, but I don't think I'm quite as spineless as I used to be, and I think living on my own -- while still not something I'm comfortable with -- is easier for me to deal with now. I'm sure I'd still die on Day 4 of living on my own if I was ever put in an apartment by myself and told, "So, live," but possibly now only because I continue to have little or no cooking skills. I'm not going to cave if forced to deal with the world on my own, and I'm not going to chase after things because I'm used to using them as a crutch. With any luck, I'm moving on to a new more independent phase of my life, and I'm not dragging any dead weight.
About the institution:
Our Rijichou is the cutest man I ever saw. He's the only member of the faculty whose feet did not touch the ground when he was sitting in his seat up on the stage, a Japanese Flitwick without a wand. After sleeping through half the graduation ceremony, he shifted to sit semi-sideways on his chair, legs dangling over the edges, looking for all the world like a ventriloquist's dummy. (Possibly controlled by his wife, the vice-president, who sat next to him with her legs NOT nicely together, so that apparently everyone directly in front of her for five rows back, according to Marianne, could see right up her skirt.)
He also gave us a speech, our Flitwick-esque ventriloquist university president, in Japanese because he doesn't speak a word of English. The translator sounded like something out of a history documentary. At one point he solemnly intoned a series of virtues, and said, "Today I'd like to choose one of those as the theme of our graduating class..........: courage." And Rijichou chirped, apparently enchanted, "Courage!"
Cutest man EVER.
About graduation:
In the background as we marched up to collect our empty diplomas, they were playing over the speakers what was, apparently, the Classic Disney Piano Collection. I graduated to "Beauty and the Beast."
The rest of the ceremony was pretty boring -- naturally -- except for a few moments of levity. I occupied myself watching headpeople move.
About me:
I put on my nice slacks, and my nice shoes, and my nice shirt, and a nice button-up over that, and my nice earrings, and I had my hair blow-dried, and as I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized I was an adult.
Then I said to myself, "And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife; and you may ask yourself... Well, how did I get here?"
So I went to the ceremony with "Once In A Lifetime" stuck in my head, humming. I never did decide whether the fact that I thought of the song and was humming it during the ceremony meant that I wasn't too adult after all, or if it just goes to show you that I must be an adult if I know that song, period. Warning -- if you know this song, or the Talking Heads for that matter, you may be approaching or in adulthood.
About possessions:
I had two mismatched lonely socks yesterday that didn't have partners. Today I found the partner for one of them, so I only had one mismatched lonely sock, but then I found two more mismatched lonely socks. I wonder where all the others ARE? Also, I can't find my Palm Pilot. Sonuvabitch had BETTER be packed somehow; I've endured too much of my mother's bitching for that piece of junk to just leave it in a foreign country, not for lack of trying.
I think Japan has been a sort of growing experience for me. Maybe it's just egotism, but I don't think I'm quite as spineless as I used to be, and I think living on my own -- while still not something I'm comfortable with -- is easier for me to deal with now. I'm sure I'd still die on Day 4 of living on my own if I was ever put in an apartment by myself and told, "So, live," but possibly now only because I continue to have little or no cooking skills. I'm not going to cave if forced to deal with the world on my own, and I'm not going to chase after things because I'm used to using them as a crutch. With any luck, I'm moving on to a new more independent phase of my life, and I'm not dragging any dead weight.
About the institution:
Our Rijichou is the cutest man I ever saw. He's the only member of the faculty whose feet did not touch the ground when he was sitting in his seat up on the stage, a Japanese Flitwick without a wand. After sleeping through half the graduation ceremony, he shifted to sit semi-sideways on his chair, legs dangling over the edges, looking for all the world like a ventriloquist's dummy. (Possibly controlled by his wife, the vice-president, who sat next to him with her legs NOT nicely together, so that apparently everyone directly in front of her for five rows back, according to Marianne, could see right up her skirt.)
He also gave us a speech, our Flitwick-esque ventriloquist university president, in Japanese because he doesn't speak a word of English. The translator sounded like something out of a history documentary. At one point he solemnly intoned a series of virtues, and said, "Today I'd like to choose one of those as the theme of our graduating class..........: courage." And Rijichou chirped, apparently enchanted, "Courage!"
Cutest man EVER.
About graduation:
In the background as we marched up to collect our empty diplomas, they were playing over the speakers what was, apparently, the Classic Disney Piano Collection. I graduated to "Beauty and the Beast."
The rest of the ceremony was pretty boring -- naturally -- except for a few moments of levity. I occupied myself watching headpeople move.
About me:
I put on my nice slacks, and my nice shoes, and my nice shirt, and a nice button-up over that, and my nice earrings, and I had my hair blow-dried, and as I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized I was an adult.
Then I said to myself, "And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife; and you may ask yourself... Well, how did I get here?"
So I went to the ceremony with "Once In A Lifetime" stuck in my head, humming. I never did decide whether the fact that I thought of the song and was humming it during the ceremony meant that I wasn't too adult after all, or if it just goes to show you that I must be an adult if I know that song, period. Warning -- if you know this song, or the Talking Heads for that matter, you may be approaching or in adulthood.
About possessions:
I had two mismatched lonely socks yesterday that didn't have partners. Today I found the partner for one of them, so I only had one mismatched lonely sock, but then I found two more mismatched lonely socks. I wonder where all the others ARE? Also, I can't find my Palm Pilot. Sonuvabitch had BETTER be packed somehow; I've endured too much of my mother's bitching for that piece of junk to just leave it in a foreign country, not for lack of trying.