Graduation season is stressful, whether you are watching your older friends leave or preparing to graduate yourself, there’s a lot of pressure to make sure it’s perfect. Looking back, there are a few pieces of wisdom I wish I had known before walking across the stage.
1. It’s not an ideal time to say goodbye.
It’s tempting to avoid emotional farewells with your friends, classmates, and teachers and wait for a perfect moment to say goodbye. However, graduation day is hectic, everyone’s families are visiting, there’s a lot to do, and there won’t be time to sit down with everyone you’ve spent the last four years with and wish them all well moving forward. Instead, it’s important to take time nearing the end of senior year to reflect with your classmates and, despite any apparent awkwardness, tell them you’ll miss them. There won’t be an ideal moment where you can say goodbye, it will happen in bits and pieces in the last few weeks of school. So don’t wait all the way until graduation day to say how you feel and then regret not having enough time after it’s all over.
2. Appreciate the moment.
After walking across the stage and shaking the principal’s hand and then sitting back down, it’s easy to be disappointed. All that work, all those late nights finishing papers, missed breakfasts, studying for seemingly impossible tests, for a piece of paper? Try to reflect on your last four years and appreciate yourself for your accomplishment; because it’s just that- an accomplishment, and you should be proud. Just because a piece of paper might feel anti-climactic doesn’t diminish all the hard work you put into earning it. So try to appreciate it, and yourself, on graduation.
3. You will never be satisfied with how many pictures you took.
No matter how many pictures, or selfies, you take of you and your friends and family you will never feel like it was enough. The feeling of, "I could have gotten one more picture with Josh in our caps and gowns" is inevitable, so try not to feel too bad about it. But really, how many graduation #tbt’s can one really post? Exactly.
4. Pin your cap- seriously.
I cannot stress this enough: PIN YOUR CAP. Nothing is more embarrassing than having your hat fall off while also trying to balance taking your diploma and shaking hands all at the same time. Even if you’re a guy and you maybe don’t know how to put on a hair pin (it’s okay, we’ve all had that moment, just ask for help), you will later wish you had something to fasten that tricky cap in place than to risk losing it on stage in front of hundreds of people. Just trust me on this one.
5. Don’t forget to SMILE.
Lastly, and this one may seem obvious, but is surprisingly difficult, make sure you smile. When walking across the stage at least 75 percent of your focus will be on not falling flat on your face, especially when wearing tall wedges like I was. Despite your complete focus on successfully walking across a stage, remember that your family is most likely taking tons of pictures from the audience, so look up and smile because receiving your diploma truly is a happy moment.
