Your high school graduation

[blue_lotus13]

Since I started working on a story about high school grad, I started asking all my newsroom friends what they did for their high school graduations. I'm really surprised by the range of activities and acceptance/non acceptance of underage drinking.

The high school grade in GP lasts two days. One is a cap and gown day, the next is the formal day, which is followed by the Safe grad. At safe grad, the grads are taken to an undisclosed location. Before attending this activity, they are allowed to provide coolers of booze, which they give over to the parent chaperones. They also have to have parental consent to attend safe grad, and these signed parental forms are given to the RCMP. Safe grad may be only attended by people between the ages of 16-20, and even the 20-year-olds have to have signed forms. The kids are then allowed to drink, and are monitored by the parents.

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My grad was a one day affair. Cap and gown in the morning, formal march and dinner and then dry grad. We went out to a farm where we played games, had a bonfire, roasted marshmellows, and had hay rides. There was no drinking.

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So what about you? What did you do for your high school grad? Is it a big affair in the United States?

Comments

[elizawrites.livejournal.com]

The day before the ceremony, there was a breakfast with a funny slideshow -- yearbook kind of stuff -- and then a rehearsal. The day of, there's the cap and gown ceremony in the evening, and then after there was a big sponsored all night party. You couldn't come and go; if you left you couldn't come back in. There were prize drawings every hour as an incentive to stay. There was music and dancing and I think sand volleyball? Just stuff do to all night.

There was definitely no alcohol, but we snuck alcohol into the parking lot. If I remember correctly I chickened out on drinking any, even though I'd definitely been drunk before. My scruples, of course, were gone after about ten minutes in college.

[suhl.livejournal.com]

I showed up. Walked across the stage. I'm sure we went and had dinner or something. It wasn't really a huge occasion. I remember seeing other people whose families were having huge celebrations, like they'd just walked on the moon. But not graduating from high school was never a possibility in my world. It just was. And college felt pretty similar. It had never occurred to me that I wouldn't go to college or wouldn't graduate, so it just happened.

[morag-gunn.livejournal.com]

Graduating from high school where I grew up involved a "formal" in mid-June, then what's called "Commencement" in mid-October the year after we all left. That was the part where we processed and got our diplomas.

"Grad" was the name we gave to the formal. You had to be in grade twelve or thirteen to attend (or you could be the date of someone in grade twelve or thirteen). It was a dinner and a dance at a fancy club. I don't think there was drinking, but I was driving so I wouldn't have been drinking anyway. If there was drinking, it would have been only for those who were 19 or older. My date and my group of friends were high on mushrooms for most of the evening.

After grad in southwestern Ontario, people go camping. That's where the drinking happens. I drove my friends and myself to the campground, where we stayed up very late partying etc.

I didn't go to Commencement because I was in BC.

[listersgirl]

There was a ceremony, and then a reception type thing for people and guests, and it may have been followed by a dance, but I left pretty much right after, so I don't remember. I assume it was a dry grad, although maybe not, because about a third of my graduating class were adults. Or maybe the assumption was that no-one would really stay. My school was never much for school events anyway.

[trec-lit.livejournal.com]

My grad was on two separate days - one was the formal walk across the stage in your gown and receive your "diploma" and then we had a night (that I think was the next weekend) with the big dinner and dance. After our dinner/dance my best friend and I didn't want to go to a party so we went with our dates to our regular Boston Pizza all dudded out in our finery.

[carpetofstars.livejournal.com]

oh, god. my school prided itself on having "traditional" and "formal" graduation ceremonies, which basically meant that we needed to attend two full days of graduation rehearsals before the day itself. we were organized by height, and at some point during high school, i had grown about six inches without really noticing, and had become one of the tallest girls in my class, so i got to stand way in the back with a bunch of fabulous neanderthal guys. it was awesome. 1/4 of my class did not actually graduate. that was awesome, too. we had three days of various pomp and circumstance (no pun intended): a "message to the seniors," where a local "luminary" came and gave a speech about our bright, shining faces (yes, she actually said that); an awards assembly, where i walked off with the foreign language award, for some reason; and then the graduation ceremony itself, which was pretty unmemorable, honestly. my grandmothers and great-aunt came along with my immediate family, and we went out afterwards for a fancy dinner. then the school had a "safe and sane graduation party," which was basically an all-night lock-in with games and movies and crap like that. someone played lynyrd skynyrd's greatest hits all night long, my friends and i went on a moonbounce a bunch of times, and i delivered some lectures about r.e.m., blah blah blah. oh, and there were prizes. i won an ancient word processor that died in about three days. woo.

[dlightful.livejournal.com]

My graduation ceremony itself was in the morning. Afterwards I guess I went home and changed and then went to a few graduation parties held by the families of my friends. That night, I attended what they called "Project Graduation" which is similar to what you described as dry grad. We basically took over the local YMCA for the entire night swimming, playing games, watching movies, eating junk food. Then in the morning, we all had a big breakfast which was also open for parents to attend. I think it was probably a week or so later that I had my own family graduation party at my parents' house.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

In Maryland there's a time-honored tradition called Beach Week, in which graduating seniors descend upon Ocean City for their first taste of freedom, and come home a week later sunburned, tattooed, and often pregnant.

I did not partake. All I wanted to do was leave for college and never look back.

[carpetofstars.livejournal.com]

ahahahahaha. i was also one of the few in my class who didn't do beach week (we called it "senior week," tho). i hated just about everyone in my class, i hated ocean city (my parents are from jersey, so i always thought of oc, md as "the fake ocean city"), and i really just wanted to forget high school had ever happened.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

yay! Captain Chesapeake!!!

[carpetofstars.livejournal.com]

i love when i can pull this icon out and be sure someone will actually know who he is. :)

[vestra.livejournal.com]

We had a dinner/dance, and then a gown-y ceremony (on different weekends? I think? Lord, it was long ago...) which was followed by a dry grad that was a huge organized thing for the entire city. Several high schools went each night. It was at a big arena, and the band 54-40 played. I was not particularly a fan of them, and just thought it was really loud. If I recall, I was annoyed by the noise, but still stayed all night and then my friends and I went for breakfast.

[starfishchick]

Mine was like morag_gunn's...

We had a "formal" (dinner-dance) in June, then "Commencement" in the fall of the year after we all left. That when we got our official diplomas.

Our grad formal was for people in grade twelve or thirteen, and it was in a banquet hall. I don't think there was drinking, but some people who had hotel rooms for the night - not me - might have had booze. There was no alcohol at the event itself, as far as I was aware.

[sadie6.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly, our cap and gown ceremony was on the Thursday night (at Centennial Auditorium, as I suspect yours would have been too) and then Friday night we had a formal dinner and dance with parents and dates. After that we went to Market Mall to play mini golf and eat pizza until the bars closed. Then they took us all to one of the bars for dancing and such but it was all alcohol free as the bar was closed and the school had rented it out overnight. I seem to recall that it was an all night deal and we were all taken home in the morning. All I really remember is that I broke up with my boyfriend at the "bar" that night so it was kind of drama filled and ridiculous.

[elf-chick.livejournal.com]

I went to a Catholic all girls' high school. Graduation takes place at dusk on the front lawn of the school. everyone wears a long white dress (cannot be sleeveless or strapless, must be approved by administration before grad day), a white picture hat and carries an armload of red roses. Speeches by the principal, president (a nun), valedictorian etc., everyone walks for their diploma, and we all do several curtseys to the crowd.

As for partying, all the seniors had grand parties in and around this time period in various places (home, country club, etc.). It was sort of a last hurrah in many ways so I don't recall my parents interfering at all. Probably some drinking; i don't really recall. It would not have been the first time or anything.

So yes, a big affair.

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

Let's see... there was a pancake breakfast that was supposed to happen, but didn't because a couple nights before a bunch of kids had gotten drunk, tore up a campground, and threw bottles at the Mounties who showed up to deal.

And then there was a formal dinner that most of the teachers boycotted, allegedly for the same reason but (in many cases) mainly because the Oilers had a good chance to win a Stanley Cup that evening.

There followed two days of classes where the tension in the school was so high you broke a sweat walking ten feet as you tried to push through the thick, thick hate-filled air.

Then we had the actual ceremony, no caps, no gowns, followed by a sanctioned dance in the school gym which everyone attended for maybe fifteen minutes. Then I went home, because I had to work the next day, and most everyone else went off to the big drunken bacchanal, which was neither safe nor organized by anyone but us.

A few days after that we buried one of my classmates, who was driving home from the big drunken bacchanal. She was, apparently, sober.

Yep, bigtime fun and games!

[coldfloral.livejournal.com]

Our grad is like GP's grad.

We have a commencement ceremony where we get our diplomas. We don't wear the traditional cap & gowns though. We wear fancy dresses & tuxes and the grad class chooses the song(s) to walk up and down to. My classes songs were everything from the Safety Dance, to Black Sabbath, to The Pixies.

After the ceremony, most people go out for dinner with their family, then we all head out to a local lake where we drink and carry on all night. There's only one road to the party spot, and it's a half hour drive down a logging road. The cops make a couple of appearances, but they generally leave the grads alone. There's also parent chaperones, who make sure no one drinks & drives (most grads camp out at the lake that night, but if someone needs to head back to town, one of the moms will drive them).

[zooby.livejournal.com]

For me, it was cap and gown to accept diplomas and fancy duds in the school's courtyard for lunch and photos. The after party took place in the curling rink and was called "Chem Free." No alchol, but we all got a certain amount of fake cash with which to gamble for faaaaabulous prizes. Grade 12 students and their dates only. The next morning, there was a pancake breakfast. That night, there were about four different parties at surrounding farms with permissive parents and we were free to drink our faces off and camp out, so long as we didn't drive home drunk. This was nothing compared to my early college days of "drink a small town dry" functions, but it was lots of fun.

[lueread.livejournal.com]

We had two ceremonies (the class was too big for one) that we in formal wear and held during the day on a Friday. Afterwards there was a dinner held at the school, that I opted out of going. Apparently there were all sorts of speeches and that "most likely to do such-and-such" b.s.. Then there was a dance at the school followed by a parent sponsored "safe grad" which bused us out to a local lakeside park ground where we could drink ourselves blind and eat pancakes. Some of my friends decided to have a "dry grad" party on their own.

If memory serves me correctly, there were various large parties all over the place the previous weekend, the subsequent evening and following weekends until the end of June. Maybe we were all just happy the snow was gone from PG.

[dangerdean.livejournal.com]

I'm old, you see, so no-one had ever heard of "dry grad."
We had the ceremony in the gym, no rehearsal, then dinner at a hotel banquet facility in Vancouver.
Then everyone drove back to Pitt Meadows to get drunk around a bonfire in someone's back field. We'd kicked in $5 a piece, thinking this was to pay the band. It actually bought the band alcohol, so they got progressively worse as the night went on.
My friends and I didn't drink, but enjoyed watching everyone else get drunk. Other than that it was kind of boring.