If I have counted correctly all along, this is week 5 of calc. Somehow, the professor’s grading scale is amazing, and my exam grade is listed as a C. I will take it. So it makes my homework average A, Quix average A, and Exam average C. I like the odds lol.
My boyfriend graduated from Kaplan on monday. It was a nice ceremony. He got the outstanding student award for his program, he was surprised (the winners weren’t told ahead of time). He deserves it, he has a high gpa (had a 4.0 till last term, but hey.. 3.8something isn’t too shabby!) and he’s always helping his classmates and everything.
I do have a point for bringing that up. The speaker they had, I forget his name, but he started off talking about how he was trying to prepare to give his speech and what he wanted to say, and that he wanted to say something memorable, and so on. His son had told him that he was only 2 years out of high school and couldn’t remember the name of the speaker or what he had to say. So in attempt to be memorable he gave his speech in the form of a top 10 like Letterman. I can only remember a few of the 10. One had to do with getting a job and the difference between a job and a career. A job being either the abbrievation of Just Over Broke, or… something like the cycle of earning money so that you can spend money you don’t have to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like and drive the car you don’t like to the job you don’t like working for the boss you don’t like… etc. Thats not word for word, but I’m sure you get the idea. And the last one was some kind of metaphor for success and how you get it.. all I remember is waking up and setting yourself on fire and letting others watch you burn. That sounds not quite right out of context, but it made sense. The idea was to get up and do something and show others you’re good at what you do.. or something like that.
So he was somewhat successful in being remembered, Its been 3 days since the graduation, and I don’t remember his name, but I remember some of what he said. Of course I wasn’t in the graduating class, so really the speech wasn’t aimed at me. But, I take in all the speakers I listen to no matter why I’m hearing them, and whatever sticks for whatever reason usually gets applied later.
It got me thinking.. I am 15 years out of middle school, I can remember the song we sang (Lean On Me), and we exited to I Believe I Can Fly – which was not the song we practiced, but I can’t remember what the other song was. There were student speakers, don’t recall who, and a commencement speaker, but I don’t remember who. Lets jump ahead. I am 11 years out of High School, I don’t remember the song, all I can remember is that there were 2 students that sang it and the rest of the class was supposed to either join in at some point or that was another song. I truely can’t recall. There was one student speaker from each of the school’s units (kinda like campuses only smaller) and the valadictorian spoke as well, and the principal. There was also a speaker, but can’t recall who. And I don’t remember music that we exited to. Ahead further. I am 4 years out of Community College, and I can’t remeber anything much about that one. It wasn’t very organized, the only instruction we were given is that if we wanted to sit next to someone, stand infront or behind them in line because the 2 lines were going to part in the isle, so standing next to them wouldn’t help. So now, I am just 2 semesters from graduation. This coming May someone is going to stand up at the podium, and talk to the group of students and gathered family and friends and want to say something memorable… but it seems I’m remembering less and less from each graduation. The most memorable speech I’ve heard, that I have remembered for at least the 3 – 4 years I’ve been here is a welcome speech that Chancellor Hanes gave to the incoming Freshmen one fall (which would have been my second semester here, since I came the spring before). She talked about the many definitions of the word pride and how at penn state we can be part of the pride that is penn state by becoming part of the family (pride of lions) and being the best student that we can be (doing something we can be proud of and our families can be proud of). There was more, thats just the general idea.
