Recently, I graduated and obtained my Master's degree in education. It was easily one of the most important events of the year. All my hard work, sacrifice and determination lead to an unforgettable event. Of course, this wasn't my first college graduation. My bachelor's degree graduation was certainly unforgettable...for all the wrong reasons.
In June of 2008, me and my family embarked to San Juan, Puerto Rico to stay at an aunt's house. The next morning, we got dressed up and went to the convention center. It was a beautiful thing. Thousands were cheering us on, all of us were proud and happy to be there.
Of course, this was the first few fours. By the time we got to hour three of the graduation, we were starting to get bored. The whole presentation of honor students and various colleges was a really mundane affair.
Just as they were calling the students, all of a sudden the power went out. We got scared for a second. I figured it was going to be some sort of prank. The lights came back on and the ceremonies went on as usual. As the speakers were still presenting students, we kept looking around. We saw that people were running around as if something had happened. One guy left the room, then quickly came back in, smashed the emergency water hose window and ran with it outside. That's when the emergency alarms went off and everyone got scared.
While we didn't know this at the time, we learned through the news that an equipment van had exploded and was on fire, meaning that it would cause disaster if it wasn't attended right away.
The funny thing is that while all of this was going on, the speakers were telling the audience to not panic, that it didn't have anything to do with us. Unfortunately, the emergency did have to do with the room, and soon the ushers were escorting us and the rest of the audience out of the room. It was all very confusing. We still heard the speakers, and at one point they said "YOU HAVE NOW OFFICIALLY GRADUATED!". This broke my heart as I was not there to experience it.
We were all escorted outside the convention center, where it all became a huge mess. I couldn't find my parents anywhere. Worse, I didn't have a celphone on me! So when I finally spotted them in a giant sea of people, I had to scream at them REALLY loudly so they would notice.
An hour later, we were escorted back inside, but it was too late. The audience had gone home due to the scare. Only a few of us were there. The whole magic was gone. I was only there to receive my certificate (which I lost on the same day, luckily it was an honorary certificate).
Now, when I attended my graduation ceremony back in June, I was very worried that this would happen again. It was in the same convention center as last time so I was anxious as to what may happen. Soon enough, in the middle of the ceremony the emergency sirens started wailing. In my seat, I shouted loudly "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?". Thankfully, it was only a false alarm, and I finally got to experience the graduation ceremony that ended abruptly in 2008.
This is definitely one of those stories that sound horrible when it happened, but when you look back at it, you laugh. It was certainly one of the worst graduation ceremonies I had ever attended, but luckily it all worked out for me and everyone else.
That's my story, I am sticking to it.
-Pedro
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