Graduation Open Thread
Congrats to all of the graduates!
I just watched my son walk across the stage at Crisler Arena as a Masters of Science in Information graduate…just a year after walking across the same stage with his BSI.
Anyone on here graduating this week from Michigan? Any other proud parents?
Remember: wherever you go…Go Blue!
Congratulations! My wife graduated from Eastern last week and is still waiting to hear back from Michigan on grad school. I hope to see her at the Big House in a couple years!
Huh? Don't you see her every day now?
You can get a degree in Information? What career does that prepare you for? By the sound of it, all of them.
The U.S. Postal Service. When you control the mail, you control information.
No one needs mail anymore, Newman!
Just walk away, I beg of you.
The OG focus is librarianship, but UMSI is one of the premier HCI programs sending UX research/design/development talent to Silicon Valley, Seattle, NYC, etc.
OG, what does the Olive Garden have to do with this?
Unlimited bread sticks.
And soup and salad
Huh?
Did they play Macho Man's entrance music?
Hadn't realized it until you mentioned it, but I graduated 15 years ago today (though it was a Saturday, not Thursday). Main ceremony in the Big House in the morning, walking across the stage in Crisler for engineering in the afternoon. Have no idea how 15 years went by so quickly.
I will say, I distinctly remember a very real sadness in April of my senior year thinking about all the things I never got around to doing. It was lessened somewhat by coming back for grad school, but my four years of undergrad went by in a flash and I'd give quite a bit to get to go back to those days...
Blink your eyes and you're 40 yrs out from graduation, like me
40 years for me too.
I'm 37 years out, which is crazy. I remember walking around campus as a 20 year old like it was yesterday.
Boy I hate math - 34 years here.
youngsters, you and wendy.
41 here. Fuck, we're getting old.
Yep, 51 for me!
42 years -- my how time flies!
"... thinking about all the things I never got around to doing."
I'm sure you have plenty of company. A while back there was a thread here about what you should "definitely" experience at UM. I remember thinking that you'd have to be loaded, highly intelligent, in an easy major, and ... on the eight-year plan to get through the list. Mere mortals (like me) had no hope.
43 years for me. Without a doubt, the 4 years at Michigan as an undergrad were BY FAR the most transformative years of my life. I came in an immature ex high school kid, and left an engaged man with a new career and a lot of wonderful memories. And yes, those years passed in a flash. Graduate school at Michigan was nothing like the undergraduate experience.
Best of luck and God bless to all the graduates and their families this weekend.
Congrats!
My kid is a HS junior and has told us UofM is the only school he's applying to.
To quote my grandmother "Lord, give me strength."
Clinton did a graduation at EMU in 2000. Rare for a president to do a ceremony at a working class school. I saw his motorcade later on that day heading to Air Force One. In hindsight I am shocked at how close we were able to get. 100 feet or so.
It's kind of a shame that's so rare.
A cool piece of Presidential trivia: Obama gave 4 High School commencement speeches during his 2 terms --- one at Kalamazoo Central HS.
I always thought him making a point to do HS commencements was cool. Between the 4 Presidents that book-ended Obama, 2 to each side, they only combined for 1* HS commencement address (Bush 43 in Greensburg, KS, on the exact 1-year anniversary of a terrible tornado that tore through the town).
---
*Technically 2, but I can't really count Clinton giving the commencement speech at his daughter's own HS graduation ceremony.
It also speaks volumes that I really wouldn't want the current presidential crop to speak at my kids high school graduation. Like "thanks but I think we are going to go in a different direction."
Well, he did like getting close to young people.
Not quite but I've got a 3'rd grader moving up to middle school and an 8'th grader moving up to high school in a few weeks.
Moderately proud of both, some days less, some days more depending on their level of fuckery :)
Wait until 10th grade, 15 going on 16. It is impossible to overstate how stupid and insane kids become at that precise age.
My son started a little earlier than that. But what's really remarkable is that they actually grow up and mature. There were many times when I didn't think that was ever going to happen.
My older son gained the ability to drive but lost the ability to reason at exactly the same time. There are times I just look at him with complete confusion as to what, if anything, he could possibly be thinking.
My son actually did this exact thing his first time driving with a permit, but on a side street. Slow hit a car going 1 mph as I yelled, "Stop! Brake!" And of course it left a dent so we had to leave a note and pay for the damage.
I've never seen that clip before. I am sitting here at work just laughing out loud with everybody wondering what is wrong with me.
The groaning.... that actually happened a lot teaching my son to drive, from both of us.
I've seen it at least ten times and still laugh out loud.
"You have plenty of time to turn one way or the other..."
That's what my mother thought...incorrectly.
If there's one thing that can make you feel humility, pride, and every emotion in between, it's having kids. Congrats to all the graduates! May you all find work that's fulfilling and interesting.
Outstanding, Congrats to him and his proud dad!
Congrats! Our niece graduates from nursing school at Hill on Saturday. So happy for her.
First - congratulations to your son - it's a great accomplishment. And - thanks to you for supporting his academic pursuits.
My two just finished their junior year at Michigan and are "on track" to cross the stage next year.
They grow up too quickly.
Go Blue!
Congrats to graduates and their parents!
My kid is also graduating with a dual degree. Proud of her
Just finished my Masters from Rackham Grad School. There's no way Michigan would have admitted me as an undergrad 20 years ago (and rightfully so), but it's a nice but of personal vindication to know that I am Michigan material after all.
I look at it a different way. They wouldn't have let me back in 20 years after I graduated.
Congratulations, my middle child graduates this weekend. For our family, seeing her walk and get her diploma is something we missed out on when she graduated high school (COVID). Super proud of her and can't wait.
Its been 41 years since M undergrad graduation and 39 years since M MBA graduation and it's definitely a great time to reflect on time passage and how great A2 was/is. M Daughter is marrying M SIL in three weeks and M AI GS son is flying out to Europe tomorrow to start a summer job. Between these changes, and the transfer portal <S> , the days of old seem like a million years ago.
To all those graduating, congrats!
Graduated in 1975. Commencement was in Crisler only.
Commencement speaker was originally scheduled to be Henry Kissinger. After a lot of protests by the lefties on (and off) campus, he cancelled and was replaced by Kingman Brewster, then President of Yale University. Thanks for nothing to all the protesters.
Kissinger didn't cancel because of protests. He cancelled because North Vietnam captured Saigon on April 30, 1975. Commencement was May 3, 1975. Kissinger was busy working on the evacuation of Americans, along with tens of thousands of Vietnamese civilians who had been associated with the South Vietnam regime.
We had Lee Iacocca in 1983. His was a good speech and he engaged the crowd when some interrupted him.
Some student in the crowd yelled, "Hey Lee, can I have a job?"
Lee responded, "Are you an engineer?"
Here's a list of all the commencement speakers from year one at Michigan.