Graduation!!!

I made it, I finally made it to the end. This past Friday I officially graduated from UMass with my MBA. Since I now have my Masters Degree, I would now like to be addressed as Master Sullivan!

Friday was a long, hot day. The commencement ceremony seemed to be quite unorganized, especially considering the only instructions that we graduates received was to show up between 12:30 and 1:00, west of the Mullins Center (the basketball arena where commencement was held). Below is a time line of the day...

12:15 - we showed up... yes we are overachievers and arrived early. We took a few pictures (see below), and promptly at 12:30 I headed over to the check-in area.

12:30 - checked in and received an instruction sheet which informed me where to line up because we would enter the arena "promptly" at 1:15 (which I though was curious because the processional was scheduled to start at 1:45, and commencement at 2:00. Meanwhile I hang out with classmates in the blistering heat glad that we are not the undergrads whose ceremony is outdoors and wondering whose brilliant idea it was to wear black robes...

1:15 - we promptly line up in the designated area as instructed on the sheet...

1:35 - wondering when this is really going to happen. We continue taking pictures with each other and stuff.

1:45 - suddenly the usher peoples are frantically trying to get us to line up. We are the last of the masters students to enter the arena. The commencement band has stopped playing, guess they ran out of sheet music and didn't/couldn't start over, we "march" into the room to no music...

2:00 - We are in and seated, and the thing actually starts relatively on time... hurray!

2:25 - I have read through the program like 15 times, I know all the doctoral theses titles by heart. When is this going to be done with. They are just barely starting to call up the masters students and I am at the end, and then after that they have to "hood" the doctoral students...

2:50 - We are getting closer to us. I, like the rest of my classmates, start cruising the Internet on our phones. One friend is answering emails for his job (he is one of five that has one, and already started).

~3:10 - my turn to walk, yeah! I don't remember anything about it, just concentrating on not tripping and falling.

3:11 - Whew! I made it all the way across the stage upright!

3:12 - Sudden realization that I still have to sit through all the doctoral students too!

3:20 - The first 6 doctoral student took forever, I am getting really hungry. The hooding ceremony seems to be a difficult thing to master, some of those students are having a hard time handing the hood to the "hooder" and then ducking to let the "hooder" put the hood on them. Fortunately, the hooder gets more proficient (i.e. sloppy) with each passing student.

3:45 - Finally we are done. The professors and doctoral students leave first in the recessional. The band plays a nice song for them.

3:50 - Now it is our turn to "march" out, then suddenly the band stops and the usher lady says just take off, nothing orderly or anything, we are all free to leave however we want. Curious. Then I realize, they never played Pomp and Circumstance, I feel somewhat cheated. Bummer.

3:55 - I am out and done, now to find the fam...

Okay, now since you were patient here are a selection of pictures from the day...

Hurry up and wait. Waiting behind the scenes with classmates, Emre, Andrew, and Greg.

This building was my second home for the past two years.

With the Minute Man!