My sister is kind of brilliant. She got her undergraduate degree in computer science today, and she's heading off to UPenn in the fall to start on her PhD, free of charge. In fact, her entire education has cost almost nothing. Achievement-based scholarships the whole way. I try not to compare myself to her in academics, because I usually end up feeling inferior and discouraged. I tell myself that I have other things going for me.

We attended an awards breakfast reception thing before heading to the graduation proper. Disconcerting moment of the day:
"So-and-so has accepted a position with Exxon Mobile to head up blah-blah-blah," says the person at the podium.
"Whoo! Exxon!" screams a supporter in the crowd.

The graduation ceremony itself was long but fairly painless. There were around 1000 graduating seniors who showed up for the ceremony, so reading the names and having everyone walk took quite a while. Still, it was well done and the people sitting behind us provided some amusing commentary, though I don't think they knew I was listening.

It hit me today that I'll be graduating in a year. It's a strange realization. I'm sure I'll be ready when the time comes, or as ready as one can be for a change of that magnitude. For now, though, I think I'll just rock back a bit and look at it, looming there in my future. Graduation. How about that.

Oh! Another strange moment of the day. During the awards reception, a speaker was talking about the outstanding achievements of one of the students. Among many other things, he had distinguished himself by graduating in 3 years with 140-something credits. This was a big deal. I thought to myself, "Gosh, I'll have graduated in 3 years. I wonder how many credits I'll have by then." So we did some math and discovered that, lo and behold, I will have at least 150 credits by this time next year. I don't really know what to do with this information. I am somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of my academic career being a spectacle. It's just my life, you know? What I needed to do just happened to fit into less time than usual. I keep having to remind myself that my "normal" isn't everyone's "normal." I mean, really, what is normal anyway?