5.17.18 - Jack's pinning ceremony

The day was going to be a bit complicated because our apartment was planning to shut the water off from 10a-2p and the ceremony began at 1p. Jack showered the night before to be cautious. Merlene filled a big pot and some pitchers with water in case we needed it. Then it turned out they never actually shut the water off that day, haha. Well better to be prepared.

Jack had to run errands in the morning, including going to a ceremony rehearsal and printing parking passes for us (our poor old printer isn't working anymore). Merlene ran to the store and got food for lunch, then went by the hotel to pick up Julie. I was so glad for their help when they got back. Julie fried some tortillas and got fixings ready for lunch, including some perfect avocado Merlene had picked up. It was delicious.

At some point Jack returned and he and Julie got dressed up and left together to get to the ceremony early. Merlene helped get Clara and Jane ready and then all of us (Don included) took their rented minivan (which came in so handy so many times) to campus. Jack was texting me asking where we were and there was zero parking available at the first parking garage, so Don dropped us off and went to find parking elsewhere (unsung hero). We found the student union building and fortunately Jack found us because it wasn't that obvious at first where in the building the ceremony would be. Also there were students everywhere because this was all happending eary afternoon on a weekday and I guess classes aren't out yet.

Anyway so Jack directed us to the ballroom and we found seats in the back near the doors (for easy exits in case of restless children). It was not a huge room, though, so even from the back we could see the stage fairly easily, plus they had big projector screens both behind the stage and around the room that were even easier to see from where we were sitting. It was a good setup.

Ready to watch Dada get his pin!

The graduates entered to "Best Day of My Life" (American Authors) which was pretty cheerful. The whole group walked down the center aisle between the two big sections of audience seats and then they paused as graduates walked up to the stage two at a time (one for each set of seats on either side of the stage). Between the really cheerful music and people applauding and cheering as their graduates stepped onto stage, it was pretty exciting and moving. To my surprise I even felt a little teary eyed (Scheve tears), it was so happy. Clara saw Jack and immediately (and persistently) wanted to run to him, so we had to figure out how to distract her. I think ultimately Julie took her into the hallway to run around and burn off some of her excitement.

The ceremony consisted of speeches and specific acknowledgements and awards before the actual pinning. In particular the student speaker, Evan, did a great job. I was expecting the sort of classic and cliche walks down memory lane and somber calls to greatness, but instead his speech was funny and fast-paced and delivered enthusiastically and sincerely. Apparently he used to be a wedding DJ. In retrospect I wish I'd videotaped it; I still hope to get a video copy of it. Either way, though, it was very entertaining, particularly his made up sample HESI test question that barely sounded exaggerated. He delivered it rapid fire and had people laughing before he'd finished. Anyway his speech was a high point.

They gave out a bunch of different awards, not all of which I can remember now, and I didn't really expect Jack to win one because I figure he's been so overloaded with being a student as well as husband and father it would be hard to go over and above enough academically to get a bonus to the degree itself. But he did! He won one of the Men In Nursing awards--the very last award annoucnced and he was the very last (of 3) recipients announced. So that was a pleasant surprise.

While all this was happening Julie was letting Clara play in the hallway and with the drinking fountain, which kept Clara busy nearly the entire time. Jane did well in the ballroom at first but when she got restless Merlene took her to the doorway where Merlene could see the ceremony and Jane could see Julie and Clara, and that seemed to work alright.

I kept checking on her to see if she wanted to switch because I didn't want her or Don to miss the ceremony, but she insisted they wanted to make sure I didn't miss any of the ceremony, which I really appreciated. Throughout the entire graduation weekend I did feel not only really proud of Jack but also that we earned this together, as a team. Both are great feelings.

Then came the actual pinning. Actually "pinning" is a misnomer because they really pin the pin to a ribbon like a lanyard and then they put the lanyard over the graduate's head. But either way. They explained the symbolism of the pin and how it involves meaning both for nurses and for Sacramento State graduates. They had all the pinners line up in alphabetical order by their graduates' last names, so Julie and Jack's friend Melody were roughly in the middle. (Only RNs can pin graduates, and Jack chose Julie because she's family and Melody because she is Jack's former classmate and was a tremendous help to him during his last semester, giving him lots of guidance on the classes and projects she had completed only the semester before.)

Normally this portion of a graduation ceremony would be really dull for the audience because it would consist of hearing a lot of names you don't recognize back-to-back as you wait for your graduate to walk. However, for this ceremony it was pretty interesting, because all of the graduates had submitted photo collages of their friends and family (and pets!) and just people who meant a lot to them or who they wanted to thank. Then as each graduate was pinned the collage displayed behind them and on the projectors around the ballroom, and it really gave more depth to the ceremony because the rest of us got a little insight into who this person is and what's important to them (and their aesthetic when creating photo collages :-P). Some of the collages were really funny, some fun-loving, some somber. One of my favorites was a collage of only three photos in which the graduate thanked her past, present and future. The past was a picture of her parents, the present was her and her (presumably) husband, and the future was a picture of her children. It was a simple and very sweet homage. I had made Jack's collage for him a while back and included a top row of pictures of him studying while Clara climbs all over him. I wanted to really highlight the unique challenge of being a student parent, plus the pictures are kind of funny.

After everyone was pinned they showed a slide show of pictures of the class throughout the program. It was sweet but a little cheesy, mostly because they did the whole thing to the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (a song I can never seem to fully escape, apparently). But they exited to "Can't Stop the Feeling" which I just now realized is Justin Timberlake which makes me like it a bit more. Also this music video is great.

After the ceremony we mingled for a while. I got to actually meet Melody, who was very sweet. Jack grabbed Jane and took her around to see people (he is proud to show his kids off). Several people recognized Jane and Clara from the Men In Nursing meetings Jack has taken them to. Then we headed outside in the beautiful weather and took some surprisingly successful family photos in front of a fountain Clara loved.

She was upset when we had to leave the fountain but I think she was just overtired. She passed out in the van about 30 seconds after we started driving home.