Congraduations!

A good friend of mine just graduated from law school (congrats, Janet! Time to start paying back those loans!) and I was fortunate enough to have been invited to attend the ceremony. It was held at Lincoln Center in New York, which is an impressive venue to see a show or concert, much less to hold commencement. I think every single orator and presenter joked about how it has been their life’s dream to perform on stage at Lincoln Center, but that they would spare us the torment of hearing them sing. It was funny the first couple times.

Both my high school and college graduations (though I didn’t attend the latter) were held in the gym, which seemed adequate enough at the time. In light of now having witnessed a REAL graduation, though, I feel like I’ve missed out, for it has been my life’s dream to perform on stage at Lincoln Center. I’ll *chuckle* spare you the torment of hearing me sing today *chuckle* … But seriously, folks…

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There was a guy stage left translating the proceedings in sign language. I tried to follow along at points but he was hard to see from up in the third balcony where I was sitting. In much the same way that seeing [MUSIC PLAYING] on closed-captioned TV makes me smile, I was happy to see that there is a way to sign for *applause*. Hold both hands out about a foot in front of your body and make small, slow, swishy circles out towards the audience. Now wiggle your fingers to give it an even swishier feel. *applause*

Signing names, though, seems a very laborious task. Ideas can be expressed through a simple gesture or the wave of a hand, but names have to be spelled out, letter for letter. There were about 380 students in Janet’s graduating class, who all filed across stage, one after the other, cued by the reading of their names. There were two or three people that alternated name reading duties, but there was only one sign guy who had to spell out the names of all 380 students by rapidly contorting his hand into sign letters. He switched hands a couple times, but there was no substitute sign guy to give him a reprieve. My hat’s off to you, Ambidextrous Iron Man Sign Guy. I’m signing applause to you.

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Behind me was a very large, very loud family. They belted forth a tremendous roar when their graduate was named. As the cheering eventually died down, the youngish daughter of a smaller, quieter family in front of me stared back wide-eyed at the Noisys, leaned over to her mom, and whispered, “Can we do that?”

“Absolutely NOT,” was her mom’s reply. “That’s disgusting. It makes me sick when people make a scene like that.” The mom then brooded with her arms crossed for the rest of the ceremony. The daughter sulked, and there was only a muffled applause from the family when their graduate crossed the stage.