Pomp and Circumstance

Yesterday was the Commencement ceremony on campus, so our office closed early, but I was part of the crew that helped with the procession of the graduates. My specific job was to help line up the faculty members, count them, keep them in line, and get them all seated. Except for the counting part, sounds pretty familiar, right? Only instead of yelling, "Please have your tickets out and ready! We've got two doors open! Enjoy the show!" I was yelling, "Ok, faculty, we need to get into two lines! Two lines, folks! Pick a side and stay there!"

You'd be surprised at how much training and coordination it takes for the processional to be successful. I personally had to go to two different practices to be ready. Then on the day of, we had a luncheon to eat and get final instructions, and I picked up my walkie-talkie radio and little counter device. I felt very important.

After lunch, I went to my spot to line people up. There was no one there. No faculty members, and no other line marshals. So, I just stood there for a while.

Oh. Did I mention? IT WAS FREEZING. The wind was blowing like crazy, and it kept snowing. BAH! Eventually, the faculty members showed up and stood there chit-chatting, hobnobbing, or in one lady's case, reading Harry Potter, while we waited for the processional to start. Meanwhile, the other line marshals showed up, and we huddled together trying to stay warm. However, we waited too long, because suddenly we looked up and saw the dignitaries marching our way. We had to quick scatter and say, "Ok, faculty, we're moving! Get into two lines!"

This was the first part I'd been nervous about. What if they didn't listen to me? I'm used to herding DC fans around, but what if the faculty members thought my directions were beneath them? Luckily, I hadn't needed to worry, because apparently they found me quite charming. I ran up and down the middle of the two lines yelling to get into two lines and congratulating them on their success. This was funny to them.

I'd been worried that I'd have a hard time keeping up with everyone going up the ramp, but somehow I was full of energy and trotted up, yelling, "Almost there! One more curve to go! You're doing great!" Once up the ramp, I was to stop and "split" the lines, which was easy, since they'd done such a good job of staying in two lines on the way over. They then lined up along the sidewalks so the graduates could come through and walk past their professors and other onlookers. Once they were all through, the faculty was supposed to follow. However, they were no longer paying attention to what was happening ahead of them, so I had to keep running back and saying, "Faculty, we're moving! Let's go!" This was problematic because by that point, I was supposed to be at the front of the line, leading them down the stairs and getting them seated. Instead, I had to squeeze between the faculty line and three lines of graduates all crammed into the stairwell.

Seating them was kind of scary, as it looked like we hadn't saved enough seats, but it worked out. Many of them grinned as they went past me, and one man said, "How'd you get down here?? There must be five of you!"

He must not have realized I'm a pro at this.