It was twenty years ago today...
 

... that I graduated high school with the Class of 1983 of North Miami Senior High School in North Miami, Florida.

One thing I'll never forget about my graduation ceremony was tossing my mortarboard in the air (with everyone else -- in defiance of the administration) when we were pronounced graduates by the School Board. Most emotional moment? When we all stood, linked hands and sang our alma mater as a class for the last time:

Oh, hail to thee, our Al-ma Ma-ter,
For in our hearts we sing to thee...

O'er the fair Atlantic shore, the sun fills each new day
With bright hopes now and more each morrow
For the Green and Gray!
To thee we pledge our loyalty, to thee our minds and hearts;
From thy radiant Green and Gray, our love will ne'er depart!
Hail to North Miami, hail to North Miami, hail... to... thee!

So what was your most memorable moment from your high school graduation ceremony?

(Interesting to note: our Alma Mater is an original composition, there are many high school Alma Mater songs that adapt their lyrics to the tune of "High Above Cayuga's Waters".)

Yea! I hope you are going to a reunion! I think they are fun. At my last one, it seemed that EVERYONE was glad to see each other, even if we had not been especially close in high school . My school is having a reunion in July for the classes of '67, '68, and '69. One night all the old bands from the day are going to play for the dance. People are coming back from all over!

At my graduation, the rumor was that we were going to march in to "Hey Jude," but we didn't - we got plain ole "Pomp and Circumstance."

i only graduated hs in 1999, but it was a great ceremony...i cried the whole time.

it was our principal's last year....the school opened in 1990, so he'd been the only principal there. he gave a beautiful and sweet speech...and our chorus sang, and then a group of 4 (4 of my best theatre friends) sang this song....so help me i can't even think of what it was....but i was just crying. and my friend luke, looked at me while he was up there singing, winked and then mouthed, "it's ok, i love you"....the beginning of our soph year of college, he passed away in his sleep.

such a bitter-sweet memory.....but i cherish it.

Congratulations!
 

My fondest memory of HS graduation was when it was over. I wish I had the cuddly memories of HS, but I really don't; I had a good time in HS, but I didn't understand why everyone was crying during grad. I finally understood during my college graduation.

It'll be 10 years ago next year for me.

Class of 94

i graduated 4 years ago this past tuesday...June 10, 1999
i could not wait to get the hell out of there...small town politics.

the things i remember from my high school graduation were...
-my class history speach, i was class president so i had a speach.
-when my name was called all i could hear was this horn loud as hell...my uncle had taken this huge air horn off of one if his truck (he has a trucking business). it was so loud that it startled me at first and i could not even hear any of my friends chear for me.
-the craziness after the ceremoney was over...we were all on the field looking for our friends, family, etc...it was the last time i actually saw a few people...kinda sad.

Going to a reunion?!?!? Hell, I'm the poor, dumb S.O.B. who's done most of the grunt work planning for our 20-year class reunion! :D (Biggest pain in the a** is the alumni search.) Already got my tickets, hotel and plane ride reserved and paid for! :)

Interesting bit of trivia: 'Pomp and Circumstance' (technically, the second movement of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1) was composed as part of the coronation march of King Edward VII.

Graduated 21 years ago this month
 

But didn't attend my reunion last year. Wasn't ready for it. Now maybe, when I get to be 47 and have something to show off, ;) I will go to my 30th.

I also graduated 21 years ago this month. I went to my 10th and it was interesting. I plan on going to my 25th or 30th.

HS Graduation
 

Okay, so I only graduated 5 years ago this past Wednesday, but the things I'll never forget from my high school graduation:

1. As a competitive senior class (grade wise) we had 2 valedictorians and 4 salutatorians. Rather than everyone giving speeches, the valedictorians were the only ones to speak (besides the ASB and class presidents)...the salutatorians paired up and were in charge of leading the pledge of allegiance (for 2 of them) and the other 2 were in charge of introducing our special guests (more on that in a minute!) The one valeductorian's speech I will always remember, because he began his speech by putting on a watermelon helmet (that he had carved out himself)....we were all rolling in the aisles!

2. My next door neighbor had graduated from the high school 50 years earlier than I did (back in 1948). My mom, as the co-chair of Grad Nite, also worked with our class advisor and invited the members of the class of 1948 back to participate in graduation with us (since they didn't have a graduation ceremony). There were 8 who participated with us, and it was so much fun meeting them and having them a part of our ceremony (these are the people that the other 2 salutatorians introduced).

3. A tradition with graduation and our principal was he always promised the senior class that he would have us through the ceremony within 1 hour, or he would treat the entire senior class to dinner. We timed it and found he was over, but he swore he wasn't so he got out of the whole dinner thing (no class ever had dinner bought for them).

4. I think we also had the requisite beach balls, bubbles, and doing the "wave" as part of the ceremony.

wow alphasigou, you graduated high school a month before i was born!

anyway, the best part of my high school graduation ceremony was when our valedictorian made a comment in his speech that i will never forget. he said that he wished he had spent less time studying and more time getting to know the people in our class, since most of us didn't grow close until the end of our days in high school.

Congratulations on your 20-year reunion!

I've got 15 more to go till I'm in your shoes :)

Most memorable part? The end..lol. I didn't see it as a big deal b/c I knew my college experience was going to bigger and better than anything in high school. I saw graduation not as the end...but as the beginning of the rest of my life. (as cheesy as that may sound)

We had ours indoors that year b/c we had horrible thunderstorms that day/night. We normally held it outside in the football stadium due to the # of graduates and the large number of people attending. So the day OF graduation we had to go pick up tickets to get our family into the performing arts center. If I recall we were only allotted 4 or 5 each and many people had lots of family coming in....so they set up a closed circuit TV channel and put all of the overflow people without a ticket in the gym. According to my relatives and many others...the gym was PACKED. That is the only time that anyone can recall that the ceremony was held indoors.

Re: Congratulations!
 

I'm kinda with you on that. But I did cry when I joined the choir one last time. I got burned real bad by choir too and left with a lot of bad memories, but I just loved singing so much that it killed me that it was my last time singing with such an excellent choir.

Which you can hear here: (Alma Mater song).
http://gleeclub.cornell.edu/music/default.php

Graduated HS ten years ago this month.

We tossed around a giant beach ball :) When the commencement ceremony was aired on public access TV, that part had been edited out :(

We had a tradition where, if you'd won any awards, the awards would be announced with your name... "Winner, Math Department Award, John Doe" or whatever. For the three or four people who won the most awards (valedictorian and salutatorian always won a bunch) the graduating class would count them: "Winner, Math Department Award..." "ONE!" "Science Department Award..." "TWO!" "Women's Club Exceptional Scholar Award..." "THREE!" etc. I didn't agree with the practice, but it was still fun counting out awards for a couple of my fellow graduates and hearing them count out mine ;)

High school reunion coming up this fall... :)

My graduation was 8 years ago, and it was an experience I NEVER want to repeat.

When our yearbooks came out the week before graduation, I found out my name had be omitted from the list of National Merit students. At my school we had 29ish of them and I was the only one left off. My mother got upset, and called the school to complain. To rectify the error the school decided to have me stand up, alone, in the middle of my ceremony, and announce that I had been left off the National Merit Students page in the yearbook. I was MORTIFIED. I had no idea they were going to do that.

Then a little later in the ceremony, as we were leaving our seats to form the line to cross the stage, the zippper on my gown broke. I was frantically trying to get it closed before I had to actually walk onto the stage. At the last moment, I yanked a bobby pin from my cap, put it through the broken zipper and managed to pull it up.

After that experience, I decided not to walk in my college graduation, but got talked into it just before the deadline to order caps and gowns. I'm glad I went to that one. It was much smoother and not at all embarrassing.

I was just at a cousin's hs grad party yesterday. In fact, it inspired me to wear my hs class ring today.

From my actual ceremony I remember:

1. My friend Dan, the salutitorian (sp?) giving his speech. He was using a rubix cube to illustrate something & started out with it all jumbled up. Throughout his whole speech he was twisting & turning it. At the end, he had it completely solved! (The trick was that he bought a new one & left it under the podium & switched them close to the end of the speech-but you couldn't tell he did it. ;) ) I have a pic of us in our caps & gowns & he's got the rubix cube.

2. Everyone defiantly throwing up their caps.

3. Bubbles.

Oddly, I don't really remember playing with the band, although I did, even though I was a total band geek in hs.

My high school graduation (May of 1999) sort of sucked because the sound system kept going out, but I remember singing with my choir for the last time. That's what I remember best. I can't even tell you what the speakers said, or who the valedictorians were (heck, we had so many, I couldn't keep them straight anyway).

I was reminded this week by an old friend that on the 10th we had been out for 5 years (class of '98). There is only one thing that I can remember that stood out during my ceremony.
Each year, it was tradition for each of the grads to have a marble and as they shake the principal or vice principal's hands, hand them the marble. They have no where to put it so it goes in their pockets and by the end their pockets are huge! Well, the year I graduated, we decided to change up the tradition and hand them condoms. Everyone was handing them the the principal and the male vice principal, but one guy had guts. He walked across, grabbed his diploma, turned to the audience and held up the condom, and then gave it to the female vice principal. Everyone just lost it cheering, it was so great!