Chapter 69:

 

GRADUATION

 

The last week of your undergraduate career is a very strange time. There are finals to get through, the mental preparation for your parents coming into town, and most of all, the sense of urgency to “get it all in” before you leave.

 

On that note, I think a more recent phenomenon at UD is the Senior Bar Crawl…with all of your freshman year floormates. I’ll give Facebook the credit for propelling this; the ability to stay in touch and coordinate such things. I’ve even seen kids get t-shirts made and the whole deal, to commemorate the event.

 

As for the graduation day and the ceremony itself? Well, between the hangover (or continued drunkenness), having to get up early, baking in the May sun (it’s usually nice on graduation day), and the day’s overall surreal nature, many alumni just remember the whole thing as a hazy blur.

 

Graduation night -- that last Saturday at UD -- for me was spent at our friends’ party at 36 Choate Street, and I think later on we went to the Balloon. Everyone went to the Balloon. At the time, I don’t recall feeling bummed out about leaving college…that sinks in later, when the following fall rolls around, and you’re not packing up to go back to Delaware! It really hits you, if you’re unemployed.

 

 

There and Back

 

“We did a bar crawl challenge the Thursday night before graduation, that was sort of like the Amazing Race with bars. There were six teams of six, and you had to drink a different drink at each bar:

 

Team Bar Crawl Challenge

May 26, 2005 at 5:00

 

Stages:

 

1. Kate’s - Car Bomb

2. Homegrown - Martini / Fancy drink

3. Grotto’s - $2 You Call It

4. Deer Park - Team bonding; Two pitchers

5. Shaggy’s - Any $3 absolute drink

6. Grotto’s - Any 22 ounce

7. Iron Hill - Any pint of beer

8. Kate’s - Car bomb finale

 

*** no substitutions for any drinks ***

 

Rules of Play:

 

* 6 persons per team, three males, three females, seniors only.

* Each team player must complete each task before proceeding.

* Team must enter and exit each bar as one team.

* Team cannot leave the bar until every player has completed the assigned task.

* Certain amount of assistance to each team member may be given (but no one team member may drink any other team member’s entire drink).

* An official will be present to regulate.

 

The drinking wasn't as hard as the running to each place with all the alcohol in your tummy.”

 

- LG, UD '05

 

Perfect Logic

 

“Do a bar crawl before you graduate. Start at one end of Main Street, and make your way to the other end. My roommate and I did this. Granted, we were also doing a project for Cultural Geography that required a walk down Main Street at the time, but hey, I got an almost perfect score and I wrote the paper drunk. But do the bar crawl, there are probably bars you have never really had a drink in. Cover them all at once.

 

Also, spend a beautiful afternoon on the deck of the Deer Park, just watching people. Sure, maybe you should be in class, but hey you are a senior, so who cares?”

 

- Kris V, UD '02

 

Solid Advisement

 

“Before you graduate, skip a whole day of classes and get drunk somewhere on Main Street where there's a patio. And throw a huge end of school year party, get in trouble with the city of Newark, then move out of town after graduation so it really doesn't matter.”

 

- Rob S, UD '03

 

Now or Never

 

“Here’s what you should do before you leave Delaware: 1) Just sit on the Mall for a couple of hours and enjoy. Always thought I would, but never did, 2) Invite all your friends from other schools and go bar hopping, 3) Check out your old dorm rooms. For me it was Dickinson, Harrington and Gilbert, and 4) Ask the girl out -- who burned you twice in one year -- one last time. Totally wine and dine her just so you can finally bang her, and get the last laugh. Hehehe.”

 

- Gary, UD '98

 

DelaWeather: Politically Incorr-wet

 

“Graduation, 2005. The Poli-Sci graduation was in the Little Bob and followed the English graduation; apparently, the staff had been given instructions to keep the doors locked until the English kids finished, to avoid traffic jams…and they ran late.

 

As we waited outside, the sky just opened up. No one thought that maybe that should change the door policy, so we stood out there getting drenched and let the little kids and grandmothers huddle under the arch. I had to give a speech and the paper was just utterly shriveled, not to mention I had to sit on stage for the whole ceremony with wet hair and wet gown, shivering in the air conditioning.”

 

- Eva, UD '05

 

Resting Up for the Big Day

 

“I slept in the bushes outside my house on Kershaw the night before graduation in '97. That's all I have to say about that.”

 

- Jill H, UD '97

 

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