I graduated. My ceremonies and gatherings were canceled due to “bad weather.” It happens. I was excited to graduate considering all of the hard work that I put into it, but I also loathe crowded events where I must present myself to the world. I mean, it is nice to be proud of all that you have accomplished and be rewarded for it, but what does it really mean? Apparently everything has a meaning, from the robe and colors graduates wear to the direction that they walk. The ceremonies are infused with meaning. I was going to try to stop myself from looking like a big black clone by wearing three different colors of cords, a medallion, and two stoles. I would have looked like a rainbow sheep. But when we go home, does the robe mean the same? I wonder what people do with their robes. I sold mine back, but kept my cap. Well, I didn’t wear it, after all. Anyway, is the attire and even the event a quest to inspire a “better than thou” attitude? Why do some people choose not to attend? Are they at home laughing at all of us who feel like we deserve some sort of pat on the back? Maybe the people who do not attend such ceremonies are merely at home washing clothes or out working at a new job and moving on in life.
I do not feel ready to move on. I am set up to go to graduate school now, having been accepted to Bloomington and Pittsburgh so far, but for the next few months I will be either working or interning while taking a class on Tolkien (Yes, I am one of those people). So, what am I moving on to? Nothing feels different yet. Due to not wanting to waste scholarship money and adoring The Hobbit and learning new information, I am still in school. I will need to find a source of income because I need money to move. And that income is of course going to be far less to none if I am chosen for the internship where I will be working at a really grand place with no pay. But I have come to a point where I must say: “What is money?”
We all need money but isn’t experience so much more? How do you know what you want to use your money to purchase? Would you know that you want to purchase a taco if you had never experienced tasting one…or maybe the thought of tasting a taco and gaining a new experience makes you spend your money. In any case, the loss of money to purchase an experience (or merely have an experience) is really nothing compared to the experience. Oh carp! I am starting to sound like a commercial. Sorry, I will give myself 30 lashings this evening for that! 
So, my point is that the things that we experience in life often mean so much more than what we spend or deny ourselves in order to experience them. I suppose that is why I wanted to attend graduation. Having graduated from homeschool for high school, I didn’t have the experience of walking, but I suppose I will have the chance again after graduate school.
We are our experiences – each experience, good or bad, changes who we are and who we will become. Before I attended university I thought I would become an editor, writer, or photographer, and while I do enjoy editing and I consistently crave writing and shooting photos, I discovered that I really want to work as an archivist and preservationist. I suppose it is the artist in me that wants to preserve works and put them into as many hands as possible. And I know this may be my geekiest post yet (the archivist who adores Tolkien), but without passion for what we do with our lives where are we? Maybe we are at home doing laundry instead of attending our commencement ceremonies?
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