Friends Forever (graduation)

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Commencement Weekend is our Super Bowl at the university.

It’s our why.

It’s why we do what we do every single day. Our overall goal is to graduate students and send them onto their next chapter. Whether we work directly with students or we’re in the background with fundraising or IT. It all points toward student success and helping them in their academic journey.

It’s a time of nostalgia and friendship and a new beginning for the grads. Being the sap that I am, I’m always so wrapped up in the season with the recognition ceremonies and such leading up to the big day. Celebrating all the incredible stories of students who made it to the finish line, I’m often reminded of my own commencement - how I felt, all the questions I had and the fear I was facing with all the unknowns. 




We had three ceremonies - Friday morning, Friday evening and Saturday morning. I worked all three. I’m on the Commencement committee these days, so it’s always fun to hear about all the progress and be included in those baby steps to then ultimately seeing it all come to fruition as grads walk across the stage. It’s like a big reunion, too, seeing all the faculty and staff you don’t always get to see during the year. Everyone is in the same place at the same time. 



Commencement might not seem like a big summer shindig, but it really is. It’s the party we all wait for! To see all the shining moments and smiling faces, reuniting with parents and children. There’s nothing like it.

I always have a commencement timeline, where I work closely with the commencement lead to remind students of updates and announcements leading up to the big day. Then, during commencement weekend, I have a content plan mapped out to help me remember shots I want to get, clips I want to film and do extensive research on the trending reels and audios I want to use. That’s all so much fun for me! 

I decided to go with a new task for the first ceremony. I tried to get a few quick clips/interviews with grads to put together for reels. Some of the audio didn’t quite turn out like I thought it would but it was fun getting to talk to other students. My friend Gabi also helped out so it made it not as awkward just randomly walking up to students when many probably assume I’m one myself, HA!

I was grabbing moments and shots with a little bit of everything. I grabbed video of the crowd, the grads, moments with the president and other officials and, of course, that moment at the end with the confetti and OneRepublic song plays as the grads walked out. I spent most of the afternoon putting reels together and posting updates on our socials, especially Instagram. I rested a bit, freshened up, then went back to work.


I tried to get different angles and find various themes to try for reels in the second ceremony - some focused around friendship, the celebration of it, or just some other fun templates I’d find. You can also play with the sunlight more during the evening, since it sets just as the ceremony ends. During the ceremony, I’d post a few stories but typically I’d wait until after because my phone would overheat and was dying. So most of my evening was spent creating and posting content on our Instagram and Facebook.

The next morning I didn’t have to get there quite as early as the day before, so that was nice. But I was still there around 7 or 7:30, feeling things out for the ceremony to scope things out, talk with the team and catch up with others. It all went through smoothly, and just like that…It was a wrap on commencement 2024. It was also fun getting to hang out with our former student assistant, who’s now on the marketing side of thing in athletics. We sat together on the main aisle to get those great shots after grads walked off the ramp. That made things very entertaining!

 But, after all the pomp and circumstance, I had to say goodbye to one of my very dear friends and her husband as they move onto their next adventure. I met up with them at a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. After a day in the sun, it was the perfect way to go, devouring chips and salsa and taquitos. I caught up with them and asked about the trip/big move ahead of them, and that I’m planning to visit in the fall. I can’t wait. I’m very sad to be losing them, but I’ll have another great spot to visit friends when the time comes.

The rest of the weekend was spent resting, reading and staying out of the heat. Phew! It’s always such a long weekend and yet it goes by too fast. Time is a funny thing, isn’t it? And now, we start planning for the fall commencement!

In the meantime, here's to summer hours and Fridays off! Oh, and a 4-day weekend for Memorial Day next Monday. YAY!


–Shelby

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