Episode 50 - Graduation!!!!

December 16th, 2006... 10:00am. O'dome. 3rd row from the front on the left side. This is where I spent 90% of one of my most happiest days in a long time (outside of that little thing in Atlanta a few weeks back). Yes ladies and gentlemen, the blog turns 50 today with this being the 50th post I saved just for this special occasion. The occasion ofcourse being GRADUATION!!!! (Note to readers, I will be thanking GOD a lot throughout this blog tonight so if you're a heathen, don't be offended, you damn heathen)

Funny, it almost didn't happen on a number of levels. 1st, finals week really felt like an ESPN Sports Classic. You know the games on ESPN classic that go into triple overtime. That was me many times this week wondering to myself why the professor has it out for me personally when he put his final exam together. I never understood how you could have senior'itis in college as opposed to in High School when you already had all your future plans already in place by January or February. But in college, if you don't have a job already, your GPA still matters. And in engineering, you can't anything below a C!

So while I know people whose last semester was composed of mainly PE classes and Basket Weaving, I was fighting through Lean Manufacturing and Supply Chain. Remember those triple coronaries I was having during the South Carolina game, well I think I had a psychotic breakdown during that final. Like I could of bit the head off a chicken and drank it's blood psychotic. You know when you turn each page of the exam and go "how do I do that?" and then throw in the fact that you need a C in the class to graduate... Hmm, yummy chicken blood!

I had to stop and pray during the exam cause seriously people, seriously. All I could see was my ass being here another semester because of this one exam. So THANK GOD, he gave me some spiritual prozac and I got my act together. I managed to put something down and by my calculations will get my C. Mission complete.

2nd, My graduation was at 10:00am so I had to be at the O'dome at 8:30am. My alarm clock went off at 7:00am and I swear, I was wondering what was so special today that I set my alarm to wake me up. I kid you not! Such was the stupor that finals week put me in. I was two taps away from hittin snooze when GOD gave me a five-finger slap and everything became clear again. I coulda snoozed! How horrible would that have been to wake up at noon!

You know, the emotions run thick at graduation for everyone. I'm sure even Bernie gets a little sad after his 1000th handshake (I think he has a stunt hand for these occasions, probably amputated from a local orphaned migrant worker). Right right right before you go on stage is the most nerve racking experience ever and you know me, I'm supposed to enjoy attention. Imagine if I had some elaborate dance to do on stage as is common now awadays...

By the way, on people dancing on stage. You remember wacky day in high school. Everyone got to look like they got dressed in the dark by stevie wonder. But you know, there's always one guy who didn't put any thought into it and just wore two different shoes. And how did he look when he got to school? Lame! Wack! Sorry!

Thats how I felt about dancing on stage at graduation. Either you come correct, or don't waste your time. You're not going to go down in history by doing a 0.5 second dance move. This is UF! They crank out the names like we're at the Ford Factory. I just threw up the frat sign after I heard my name and subsequent Blu Phi. I didn't dance cause I'm surprisingly conservative when it comes to GRADUATION, but I saw this one dude do one spoonful of The Chicken Noodle Soup before the next name was called and I felt sorry for him. Two different shoes...please!

Anyway, after I got off the stage, I was surreal. Floating even. Even after I sat down, I couldn't believe I was now a graduate of The University of Florida, the greatest school in the south, southeast, east, country, world? Either way, I had to keep telling myself and everyone who sat around me that I was a graduate of UF now 'cause it was like a dream.

I'm gonna save my reflections on UF for a later post, but I will say I take singing the Alma Mater in band for granted because the people to my left and right had no idea how it went and I had to go all American Idol on them to save the day.

After all the pictures and hugs outside I had dinner with my family... in OCALA! Thanks Gainesville hotel system. It was cool though. It gave me a chance to see how much love and support I've always had right under my nose. And I was getting some Mafia wedding envelopes. I hope that trend continues in Jamaica. My day ended with me finally opening up this 12year old Appleton that's been teasin me for weeks now. All I can say is I only deal with 12 year olds now... rum that is.

Even now, its still a little hard to believe that college is over. I'm officially an adult now. Scary, but interesting. I look back and this post should of been longer then the one on my birthday, but I think I spent much of saturday on cloud nine so I cant remember the specifics. I'm slowly coming back down to earth though.

So what is in store for the future of Dollar Bill? Christmas trip to Jamaica...check. Watching the gators sphalack the buckeyes in the national championship game...check. Great paying job back at home...double check. A potential future Mrs. Mills...workin on it. Either way, I honestly think GOD has some great things planned for me and I can't wait to get it going. He got me this far didn't he?

* Until the spring graduation, you can watch all of UF's graduations online at http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/commencement/ just click saturday morning when you get there and fast foward to 1:13:30 to see ya boy...

PS: This is also the 50th post on my blogt. Now that school is over I think I'll be able to post like when I first started this. I'm planning some things for this blog now that we've hit the big 50. I'm gonna make a top-10 lists of previous posts and add a subscription thing so you can get new posts emailed right to you! But I won't get to any of that till I'm chillin in Jamaica with nothing to do. Maybe if Cingular customer service stoped being so horrible I can post from anywhere in america with my as yet purchased Samsung Blackjack...I wonder who cingular customer service calls when they have problems with their phones? Oh yeah, they probably all have Verizon!

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