A Nightingale In A Golden Cage

It's over. I can't believe it.

I thought I was going to cry. I would have bet money that I was going to cry. And, surprisingly, I didn't.

The ceremony was wonderful. The Die Lieders sang beautifully, Jake's solo was a song I sang in 5th grade (which made it even cooler), and Chanell's solo was amazing. I teared up during "For Good" but didn't cry.

I sat there in my chair the whole time, hoping that my calculations were correct, that each teacher would hand out diplomas to four rows and then switch. That way, one of my most favorite teachers would give me mine. I could have been shaking for all the excitement I had. And when my row stood up, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Believe me, I tried. I wanted to look serious, but I just couldn't stop smiling. And then, when I was just two people away, I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling too much. And then Brian went up the two steps and took his diploma. And I waited for Mr. Maxie to call my name. When he did, I couldn't stop from smiling anymore. I took those last two steps and I was so very happy to take my empty diploma thingy from Dr. Fitz. I wonder what happens to those pictures they take while you're getting your diploma....

Getting my diploma from one of my favorite teachers absolutely made my day. Not that my day wasn't already made by the whole graduation thing, but it just made it even more amazing.

After the ceremony, I hurried over to the Poway Rock to meet up with family and grab my diploma (which I was first in line for). Bethany tackled me once I got there, picked me up, and swung me around and around. It was fun. After I got my diploma, I gave big hugs to Emma and Jessica and Jessie and Bethany and pretty much anyone I knew who I found. My dad finally came down, followed shortly thereafter by my mother and Vejaya, who had never been to an American graduation ceremony before. It was an honor for her to come to mine and have it be her first. I took my phone and my camera from my dad, gave him a hug, and had him start to take pictures. My mom came down, gave me a lei (spelling?) with legit flowers and a bouquet. More pictures were taken - especially by Kami, who'd brought her awesome expensive Canon DSLR. I'm still waiting for those, fyi.....*hint hint Kami*

Anywho, then after many pictures had been taken, I bid adieu to my parents and Vejaya just in case I didn't find them again that night, and went off in search of more friends and teachers to take pictures with. We found Stacy Moon and Abbey Howe and many other people and then finally ran into my favorite Golden Trio: Fitz, Graber, and Lewis (alphabetical order, ftw). I got pictures with all of them and even when I wasn't posing with someone, Kami kept snapping pics. I made some pretty weird faces. I tried to get a pic with Lewis, Fitz, and Graber at the same time, but in most of them, they were all looking off in a different direction or were talking to someone else.

And then Emma found me again and took me off to her family, who had another bouquet for me. They all gave me hugs and we decided to go back to the cars to drop everything off. But not before I gave one final hug to my two favorite teachers EVER: Lewis and Fitz. After that we trekked back to the Faculty Parking Lot where both Emma and I were parked - oh yeah, I had to get my keys from Fitz because they were in his pocket. Anywho, Emma's mom took my flowers home, we dumped our flower leis in the back of my car, along with our caps and gowns, and grabbed our clothes to change in the bathroom. On the way there, we met Lewis, who was heading home for the night, then changed, came back, made some last minute calls, and went to Grad Nite 2009.

Needless to say, Grad Nite was so AWESOME that I can't even begin to describe just how AWESOME it was. There was DDR, Guitar Hero, a chocolate fountain, a lemonade fountain, a candy bar (a bar for candy), coffee, a DJ, tattoos, a hypnotist, a pool table, an ice sculture in the shape of a guitar that they poured energy drinks into, fortune tellers, handwriting analyzers, hair stylists, a rock wall, a giant slide, carnival rides, a money machine, a dress-up photography booth, jewelry-making booths, carnival games, raffles, free food, a casino, paparazzi, cool prizes - it was SOOO COOL.

I put a lot of my raffle tickets in this raffle for Birch Aquarium tickets. The nerd in me screamed when I won them along with a gas card. I also won this random action figure that I don't remember signing up for....but it came with a cool Victorinox Swiss U. backpack. I got some stickers for my bro and a cool hand-painted box that I think I'll take with me to college. Jake got the bike he wanted, Evelyn got the dorm comforter that she wanted, Bethany won posters, JT won a bike, Emily won a giant bear, and Linzi won something that I can't recall.

Anyway, after partying for eight straight hours, I was surprisingly awake enough to drop Emma off at her house and drive home. And of course when I got home and unlocked the front door, I found that it was chain-locked. So I had to ring the doorbell and wake my mom up so that she could let me in. >_<>