We all had to be at the Florida fairgrounds this morning at 9:45 for rehearsal. I walked around talking to everybody until they made us find our seats. I kept joking that it wouldn't be hard to find my seat, first chair, first row! Ha Ha! I asked Cindy how were she and Chris and she just laughed saying there is no her and Chris. Yes! I was hoping it wasn't just one of these one day breakups. And it's not. Yes! Yes! Yes! We got nice little SADD keychains as we left. I also joked with Kirsten and got her to hit me in the stomach. I go 'you hardly ever talk to me and now you're beating me up' and we laughed. She was looking for Tricia and as I was leaving I saw the two of them talking so I walked up to Kirsten, put my hand on her shoulder, pointed at Tricia, and went 'there she is'. I think she called me a smart-ass as I walked away. It was funny. Nicole and I didn't talk at all at rehearsal but she later said she tried to get my attention as she marched out.
On the way there I just kept reading my speech to myself. I originally wrote a pessimistic speech with talk about reforming schools and saving the earth but I ended up turning that in as my article for the Tampa Tribune Monday morning. They wanted all of the valedictorians to do a paper on the future. I wrote my last minute, one page, bullshit speech at four o'clock today after I woke up from a long nap. I also didn't eat anything today because I knew that a full stomach would really mess with my nerves. My only salvation and hope was that fact that in a couple of hours it would all be over and I would start having fun. We got there at 6:30 and had an hour and a half to kill talking to people before it started. I met up with Stacy and sent my parents up to get seats close to the front. We forgot to bring a bloody camera! Damn it! We went up behind the stage to get our cowls and Mrs. Massey, the principle, put on mine. I started talking to Cindy and Tejal and asked them if they were nervous. Cindy was really nervous and kept saying she was going to through up. I dare say she was almost as screwed up as me about talking. We got in a bunch of pictures and talked to Jana and Andrea and everybody else. I kept walking under the bleachers with Stacy reading my speech out loud. He kept telling me where to slow down and all.
Everything else between then and the time I spoke sort of blurred by. Mr. Cardoso passed out marbles for us to hand to Mrs. Massey as we got our diploma covers. He gave me three and told me that he better not catch me throwing them at anybody... and missing. When I gave my speech it started out fine I guess, but then I started listening to myself and lost my place. So I looked up at the audience and impromptued the rest of the paragraph, and saved my ass without ever pausing. It was really sweet and short. Chrissy later told me that she heard someone in front of them say 'how sweet' when I thanked them. Nobody else thanked their parents individually, and I was making fun of Cindy right in front of her parents before we went up. I wasn't sure how her parents would talk to me when I first started talking to them and Cindy since I beat her and all and had never met them in person before. But they were nice. I went and sat back down in my seat, and just sort of slumped there in shock about giving my speech. I didn't listen to any of the other speeches but when Cindy came and sat down, she was almost as much in shock as I was. She kept shaking and was all jumpy, meanwhile I just sat there and didn't move. We didn't snap out of it until after we and a quarter of the school had gotten our diploma covers. Then we started having fun. We would make fun of the people, and say which of the people we liked while at Leto. She said she liked Brian Nunez so I told her that he fucked Nicole. She said thanks for completely ruining her image of him, and we laughed. We ended up having a damn good time. Michelle Hasebrock was right behind me and kept fixing my outfit when something was crooked. Stacy told me as he walked by that I did good and if he said something positive it had to be true. Whew!
At the end we tossed up our hats and bounced around beach balls and all that. Then we went to get our diplomas. They looked really cool because of all the seals on them. I had four. National Honor Society, National Beta Society, Honors, and Valedictorian. It is really nice and impressive. Then we started our goodbyes. The first person I hugged was Cindy, then Jana. Kirsten runs up to me and goes 'Dan, you did it! You talked in front of everybody!' and gave me a big hug. Some of them ended up being really long. Then I hugged Andrea, Sandy Babb (hesitantly, we started to shake hands at first, but then we figured what the hell), Christine Mitchelson, Rose, and some others. I shook hands and said bye to Minh, Derek, Mike Alberts, David, and some other guys. I also hugged Mrs. Lane, my 10th grade English teacher. It was in her class that I began excelling in English. Then my parents finally found me. They said they were watching me talking to everybody before graduation. Meg walked up in a really revealing dress and since my parents were standing there and she and I had gotten to know each other at Jana's party, I went up and gave her a nice big hug. I was kinda showing off, but damn that's one hug I'll always remember!
We headed under the bleachers where everybody else was getting their diplomas. I walked up to Nicole and we hugged. We talked for a little bit. She looked really cute tonight. Her dad had flown in from Raleigh, North Carolina at 4:15 (I called her earlier) and I knew how she had told him all about me. I also knew that he would be watching me as I graduated and I kept thinking about that before I gave my speech. Both times she walked by she looked up into the stands instead of at me, so I confronted her and she said that she kept trying to get my attention when she was on the stairs but I was talking to Cindy. But we ended up having a good talk and my whole family got to see her up close for the first time.
I had a fucking blast and I'm going to miss everybody so much but I'm glad it's all over!!!
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