Pomp and circumstance, again 🎓

Eight years after graduating from BYU, I am now also an alumnus from the University of Utah.

On Thursday, I left work a little early to take the bus up to the U for my commencement ceremony. I donned my master's robe (which had weird sleeves), my hood, and my cap. I lined up in the spot for humanities master's students. I was surprised that my fellow history grad students didn't show up for commencement; only one other was there. I mean, I kind of understand that it's expensive to buy a robe you only wear once and sit in a meeting. (BYU just had us rent our gowns, so I don't know why the U didn't do that as well.) But for me, it was nice to have an official ceremony to end my schooling career.

We all went into the Huntsman Center to hear speeches and awards. The keynote speaker was Doug Bowser, the president of Nintendo. Yes, that is his real name. Yes, the joke writes itself. He likened life to a video game, with barrels and bananas that come at us, but we can do things to level up. (I'm not a gamer, but Mario is like the only video game that interests me, since it aligns with my preferred family-friendly, happy aesthetic.)

Then on Friday, my mom took pictures of me in my grad garb before we headed to the humanities convocation ceremony. 

I made this my Facebook profile picture, but I guess the algorithm no longer puts this in people's feed.

Doug Bowser spoke again. They read off our names as we went to pick up our diploma covers, and I made a mistake as I headed back to my seat and went on the wrong side. I felt dumb about that. But then I remembered that at work this week, one of the senior missionaries accidentally pocket dialed a nonsense message, "Mm211m2m2222m1," in a reply-all email—to the entire department, including general authority seventies, managing director, department managers, etc. So me going the wrong way was just a little thing compared to that embarrassing email gaffe.

My experience with the University of Utah really is vastly different from BYU. Of course, the universities themselves are very different, and I'm glad I got to experience both. At BYU, I got to hear different perspectives from people with the same worldview. At the U, I got to hear different perspectives from people with different worldviews. I think there is value in both experiences. 

But at BYU, I lived just off campus and got a true college experience, living in Provo for more than four years. But at the U, I lived at home with my parents, and I wasn't immersed in the lives of college students.

But also, you know, there was COVID. So my entire first year was remote, just going on Zoom in my chair. My first semester consisted of long runs in the morning, then attending virtual classes and spending most of my free time reading and writing papers. My second semester, I also had a remote freelance job. In fall 2021, I got to go on campus. I commuted to school four days a week on the bus, and I enjoyed taking the bus. And then for this last semester, I just worked on my internship, without actually going to campus.

Part of me is sad that I only had one "real" semester. But it was out of my control, which makes me less sad. I never used my UCard to get free admission to the university museums, but COVID and everything else made that complicated. So it's reasonable that I didn't have a normal experience.

Before I started, I was worried that it would be really hard. A friend told me that grad school was easier than undergrad because they just want you to work on your thesis. I remember thinking that she couldn't really know what my experience would be like, since she had a different major and a different school. And for me, grad school was at least as hard as undergrad. I usually had to read two or three books and six articles a week, and I had to write lots of papers. In many ways, it felt like a very expensive book club. (Speaking of expensive, here's a shoutout to my parents who let me live with them at a low price so I could graduate debt free!)

As for a thesis, my program didn't require a thesis. It requires a portfolio, which took a lot of my free time this January, February, and March. And I still have to defend it tomorrow morning since one of the professors on my committee was in Italy. So I'm not entirely finished until tomorrow.

And to celebrate my (almost) completion, last night I decided to attend a Mat Kearney concert. I have superficially followed him the last few years, and last August I bought his last album, January Flower, because I still buy music. A coworker from This Is the Place saw him last summer and recommended that I see him when he came around again. So I took my sister to the Union Event Center, and it was a great show! He is one of those singers who is just as good live as he is on recording, except the acoustics weren't the best. It could have been worse but it could have been better. I find I get bored with a lot of these male singer-songwriters, but Mat Kearney is one of the better ones. I love his latest album, and I was a little disappointed he didn't sing every song from it.

Though I have some wistful feelings about graduation, I am glad I will no longer have readings and papers looming over me all the time. Now I'm starting on a new phase of my life!