So sorry it was horrible, but congratulations on your new degree! That's quite an accomplishment!

Before our new arena was completed in 1996, commencement was held at the outdoor baseball stadium. The ceremony started promptly at 10am, but with an average of 1500 graduates walking, it was at least a good 3 hours before it ended. They had people walking out of their seats during the ceremony to go get water because the artificial turf basically did the same thing the white platform did to you guys.

I was lucky because my ceremony was in UHM's state of the art, totally air-conditioned arena. Local tradition requires the graduates to receive leis at the completion of the ceremony, and that was still done at the baseball stadium. My feet were killing me, but we were instructed not to take off our shoes because the turf would literally burn our feet.

I'd do it all again in a heartbeat though. That was such a great day.