Well, it’s that time again and everyone at UCLA is done with finals and have been spending the past few days graduating.  Today marks the final day of all the ceremonies, from commencements to departmental graduations to the ethnic-based ones.  I’ve been getting e-mails on the AKPsi listserv of people talking about taking pictures together, attending their respective ceremonies, and otherwise celebrating the Class of 2009’s achievement.  It’s really a festive time of year, as everyone has summer on their sights and just this one last hurdle before induction into the world of alumnihood.  For just a moment, any worries about the future can be set aside as we focus on the here and now and rejoice in the completion of a degree.

Still striking.

All this hubbub reminds me of my own graduation last year, with the drama of the strikers, the excitement of the surrealness, and the hectic whirlwind surrounding finals and graduating.  The summer of 2008’s kickoff will always be a bittersweet one for me, since some of my relatives were able to fly in from China to attend, but the strike drove away Bill Clinton and Ariana Huffington as commencement speakers.  I still feel it would have been better for Clinton to come and talk to us about the strike, rather than avoid the issue completely and leave us all so bitter over that outcome.  Overall, it was still a good time, to enter Pauley Pavilion and see so many of my peers filling the floor as their loved ones crowded the arena.  The Deans of each segment of the College of Letters and Science introduced us with flair and I got to be represented in both the Life Sciences as well as the Social Sciences.

Phil Wang at the APIG.

The following day I had both my Psychology and Economics departmental graduations, which my relatives split up to attend, with half coming for the morning Psych one and the others coming for the afternoon Econ one.  It was a crazy day that started way too early and had me going far into the night as I ran around to get to places on time and find my family amongst the crowd.  I still had some packing to do, which I needed to complete by the next day so I could go to the Asian/Pacific-Islander Graduation (APIG) in the afternoon and head back immediately thereafter to celebrate Father’s Day.

The APIG ceremony was truly special, since it was much smaller and was held outside in Dickson Court.  I gathered together with a bunch of my fraternity brothers and we sat quite close to the front.  Far East Movement and Wong Fu were there, with Far East performing customized lyrics and Phil Wang speaking to us about how the Asian-American community needs to unite.  We had a local Asian-American leader as a guest speaker, but of course I’ve forgotten his name.  All of the graduates even got t-shirts commemorating the event, with our names on the back!  It was great that one of my fraternity brothers was actually organizing the event – I was so proud!  Now he’s graduating as well.  Amazing how a year can pass just like that.