Graduation Parties

So my brother Dan is an RA in upperclass housing at Drew. And I don't know why I hadn't even thought of it when we (my other two sibs and mom) decided to just stay at his place for the night before graduation, but it was rocking here last night! There are, I have to admit, days that I miss my own time working in Res Life. Last night was one of those time I remembered why I'm glad to be out!

I mean, these seniors had a rocking time, including an inflatable pool (complete with inflatable dolphin and palm tree), an apparently endless amount of alcohol, and of course that one guy who yelled (we could hear even with the windows closed), "OKAY, NOW LET'S STREAK!" Ah, college kids.

This morning, it will be the same as it is on graduation mornings around the country...those same partiers will drag themselves from bed (some maybe never even made it there...) put on a robe, walk across a stage, and be thrown out into the world that actually has very little patience (certainly less than campus security seems to have) for graduation-eve-type partiers. What was fun in college becomes, eventually, a liability. The guy who always had a beer in hand may end up the guy going to AA meetings. But maybe he ends up the guy who marries young, has a bunch of kids with his high school sweetheart, lives happy and healthy for a long life.

The truth is, you never really know. And you can never go back. Even returning for reunion weekends isn't the same. Visiting professors never feels quite the same as it was to be their student. And even without bemoaning the pains of adulthood (it really can be pretty awesome even allowing for, you know, the grown-up worries of it all) you can never recapture the college life. Well, except perhaps if you go to grad school...but then it's only for a little while...

But perhaps last night partiers are indeed very wise young men and women. Maybe they understand all of this...and that's precisely why they stayed up so late having fun with each other. What's a little nodding off during the graduation speech if it means you got a few mroe minutes to be a college students.

Whatever they intended...it's pretty hard for me to resist the urge to run through the halls with a fog horn. I mean, they DO have to walk that stage. And you know, having kept us up, it seems only fair!

I won't though. I'm a grown up after all. :-)