What I Learned from College Graduation Ceremonies and More

Pamela Tracy here.


This past Friday I attended a college graduation.  It's probably the 20th I've attended: three as a graduating student (YEAH) and seventeen as an instructor (YEAH again).

Graduations are opportunities if you're a teacher who writes on the side.

First, there's the emails that start flying about a month before graduation date.
   a. Don't forget to mark your calendar  (deadline).
   b. Be a volunteer at graduation (think giving workshops).
   c. If you lost your cap and gown, see the bookstore to order another one (goodbye old computer; hello new).
   d. Division party at Mexican restaurant before graduation (National RWA).
   e. Remember, graduation is part of accountability - if you do not attend, submit six hours from payroll (Never miss a deadline).

 Teaching a student is not unlike writing a book.  I typically get five months to grow a student like I grow a  novel.  Sometimes, my student (novel) comes the first day of class (page one) and is raring to go.  Other times, he just sits there not even picking up his pencil (writer's block).


 Through-out the five months there are highs and lows.  Every single class, there's something to learn (research) and tests (critique group).  Until finally, comes the final (end of book!)

  As a professor/author, I love graduation because I get the graduation folder that has all the names of graduates (I'm definitely using Esmerelda in a future book) as well as the majors (not all that helpful - some ideas go nowhere).

  But, it's watching the ceremony where I learn the most.

  This year I watched two people on stage.  They were standing right next to each other.  Because I'm involved, I knew these two people DO NOT GET ALONG (conflict).  For the first 30 seconds, they stood rigid, a slight glare from both, then they relaxed because in the end the student (story) matters.

  We had three student speakers.  They were all adult return students and they all gave the same message (If you have a dream, act on it).

  Then, finally, came the role call.
1.  One of our deans had to read 300 names.  Not everyone has the name John Smith.  Sometimes the name is Henouoouh Bouhsondifhdis.  And, yes, Henouoouh's parents will complain if you mispronounce his name.  (Henouoouh is not a name you can use in a fiction book)

2. Shoes!!!!!  I love looking at the female graduates shoes.  They range from the classic high heel, to the platform, to bulky tennis, to boots, and my personal favorite because I live and teach near a rez: moccasins.  (The favorite shoe to mention in romance books is Jimmy Choo, did you know?)

3.  The caps!!!!!  I hate mine.  It never stays on my head.  But, what really annoys me is that my generation didn't think to decorate them.  This year, we had one student with working twinkles strung about her cap.  How cool is that? (Heroines don't wear hats unless they're baseball (rare) or cowboy).

The end:  The evening dusk spreads as graduates and family/friends spill across the hallways and out into the open landscapes.
We instructors are shedding our robes and striving to find the students we actually taught (fans!).  Then, tired (I personally grades more than a hundred papers in two days) we head to our vehicles and home to our own family.

Or, if you're me, you head home to your sleeping family, grab a soda, sit down at the kitchen table, and say to yourself "Ah, I know what I'm doing with this scene" and write the four pages you've been wanting to get to for a week.

So, are there any graduations in your life right now?


Comments

  1. I love your comparisons between graduation and writing. No graduations in my family in the forseeable future. A million years ago, my husband got a blank folder instead of a diploma at his graduation ceremony because he'd missed orientation and somehow his "intent to graduate" had never gotten filed. But he did graduate, and so did I, before we were married that evening.

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    1. Funny how a little thing can change an outcome. LOL, it's true in novels too. There's no AZ graduations in the near future for my family. Me, I go to one a year no matter what LOL

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  2. I just graduated my latest manuscript to the editor. :-) Other than that, no. :-) Loved your analogy and it is so appropriate!

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    1. Cool, and Patricia, I'm sure it was with honors!

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  3. Great comparison Pamela, for graduations and wrapping up a novel are both, at the same time, endings and beginnings aren’t they? And kudos to you for going home after grad and writing more pages!! :)

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    1. I have a book to revamp, so I'm not really finishing, more like doing a global search for three letters and pulling out one subplot and making it better. Maybe that would be like changing to a new major. hehehehehe

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  4. What a fabulous comparison! My teacher's assistant is graduating this year and I'm sure going to miss her next year. I'll be sad to see her go. :(

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  5. I agree with Janice here...you went home and wrote? After all that? WOW! Call that next heroine Pamela! Great post, no graduations in our family for a while till my stair-step grandnieces get there...but in 2 years will be my granddaughter. Marine biology from Texas A&M. That's a mouthful. And yes, she does inspire me to write about dolphins and whales. LOL.

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    1. LOL, I graduated from Texas Tech. I've got some great jokes about A&M LOLOLOL.

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  6. This post called up lots of memories for me. Seems like one minute, I watched my son graduate from 8th grade in the Chicago Public Schools and about ten minutes later he was teaching 8th grade math in the CPS system and in charge of planning graduation. And speaking of conflict, my ex-husband and I got along well and could share family events without our two kids worrying about tensions. The last time I saw my kids' dad was at my son's master's degree graduation. We were thrilled, proud, all those things, and a year later almost to the day, my ex died suddenly. Harmony might be boring in fiction, but I was really grateful for it!

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    1. My hats are off to the parents who put their children's feelings before their own. I used to be an elementary teacher. There were parents I wanted to send to the corner for their behaviors. I applaud you.

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  7. My daughter graduates high school in a few weeks. She's excelled in the classroom and played a lot of sports. I looked at her on the softball field Saturday and could vividly picture her in that same spot at age 10. As a writer, it kind of reminded me of back story. A character's past sometimes seems over played in books, but a person's experiences do make up who they are going forward. Not everyone has spent 8+ years of their life (about half their lifetime) on a ball diamond, in extended seasons of play, and that impacts a parent and a child's perspective. I'm sadder to leave the ball diamonds behind that I thought I would be.

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    1. My son is 13. It's hard to imagine him in the graduation line, but oh I so pray he gets there.

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  8. No graduations here. Nice analogy, though!

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  9. None in my life this year, although our granddaughter graduated in December--B.A. summa cum laude in three and a half years, not that I would ever brag--but I think they are the tenderest times.

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  10. Pam, that was an amazing analogy! And when I read 'the name' I burst out laughing and my kids asked what I was laughing about ;).

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    1. LOL, you think I'm kidding. I once had a student with a name I couldn't pronoun. I think it was 15 consonants and 1 vowel. It was beyond my midwestern ability.

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