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Graduation Goggles



Believe it or not, as graduation came nearer, I had this random thought in my head, bear with me because this is very random indeed. Ted Mosby had said in How I Met your Mother that there are two great days in a guy’s life, the day you meet the girl of your dreams and the day you ask her to marry you. You’ll see where I’m going with this, trust me. So, I thought, it’s the same with students, you know? For any student, there are two great days, the first day of college and the day you graduate. Needless to say, I was excited for my graduation.
The invitation came in the month of October, and I was told that I was to give the Valedictorian speech. I had a month to prepare for everything and that month went in a blur. There were frequent trips to the college, shopping for the right saree, drafts for my speech, endless preparation of speaking. And before I knew it, the day had arrived. You know that feeling, how you feel like you’re the star of the show, it’s your day, it’s your big day? Yeah this was my day, this was our day. This day was the outcomes of all the hard work I had put into for 2 years, all those late nights I stayed up for assignments, all those interviews I took for my reports, all those hours in front of the mirror practicing for my presentations. And it was here. The big moment was here, the big moment had come.
The arrangements blew me away, they were special as I had imagined, all the balloons, all the props, all the colors; it was enough to swoon anyone away. It seemed like time seemed to haze away and slow down at the same time, because there were so many things I wanted to. I had tons of pictures to click with my friends, I had to give my speech, and I had to embrace the moment. I hoped I could justify that last one. Because that was what I wanted to do best, this moment was not coming back again. Moments before the speech, when I knew that name was about to be announced, I could feel my heart beating fast, I was nervous. I wanted to run away, could I really do this? What if I made I mistake? What if I got blank stares? What if I stammered and lost track? Then what? Would I make a fool of myself? But all that went away once I got on the stage. These were not people I did not know. These were people I cared about, this was family. I did not get blank stares, I got looks of encouragement, I saw proud eyes; I don’t know how I understood, but I just did. And then, even then as so many pairs of eyes looked at me as I spoke, all that nervousness just went away, because I knew that I was amidst comfort here. And when so many people came to me and praised me for the speech and that they really liked it, there was no doubt, that this was one of the happiest days of my life.
As I looked around at the familiar faces, I realized that this would be last time I would see all of us together. I recalled the very first day at college when we were just getting to know each other and now I can’t imagine a time I did not know them. I remembered everything, all those cups of tea we had after our classes, all those times we laughed away both with each other and at each other, all those times we hung out, all those lectures, all those assignments, all those oh god not one more time moments in classes. They didn’t seem as bad as they did a while ago. Maybe this was what they call graduation goggles.

Comments

  1. SanyamDecember 9, 2019 at 12:47 AM

    Hearty congratulations for your graduation my dear. Wish u more successful years ahead!

    ReplyDelete

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