[nagdu] All Done

[Meghan Whalen]

Yesterday, May 16 2010, I graduated.  For the first time in 19 years, I am not a student.  I feel very strange, and I feel a little detached from reality right now.

The ceremony started at 10:00 AM yesterday morning.  About an hour before hand, I asked one of the martials if she could show me the path we would walk up to and across the stage.  There were footprints on the stage where we were supposed to stop to have our pictures taken, and I was easily able to feel them underfoot.  I showed them to Kirby and patterned her to pause there for a moment.  After leaving the stage, we had to pause once again for a final foto with our deploma folders, then it was back to our seats.  I walked the path twice, and the second time, Kirby stopped perfectly for all the little footprints for the fotos.  What an amazingly smart little girl!

The ceremony started with plenty of important folks trying to inspire us to be awesome, and of course to be sure to come back and visit...

Once the students actually started walking across the stage, I got a little bit nervous.  I was in the front row on the far right, and I thought I would be first.  I was relieved to find out that my section was the last of three to go up and walk.  As 1500 graduates slowly walked past Kirby, she didn't move an inch.  We were seated in very small folding chairs, so they had taken two out of the front row so that Kirby would have room since she couldn't fit under my chair.  The martial for our row kept checking in with me to keep me posted on how close it was to our turn to walk, and he complemented me on my "sweet little dog who never batted an eye as so many graduates walked right past her nose."

More than once, classmates and friends leapt out of the procession to dash over and give me a hurried hug and congradulations.  This meant worlds to me, as I wasn't sure I was leaving this campus having formed many enduring relationships.  Even when I was charged and hugged by friends, Kirby didn't move or lift her head.

Suddenly, I heard, "Okay graduates, on the count of three, stand up and we'll begin walking up to the stage..."

On the count of three, I stood, and Kirby waited for my word for her to stand, too.  We had been up and down singing the National Anthom and the like, and she wanted to be sure this was a time she really should stand, as I had reminded her to rest the other times I had stood up.  With a snap of my fingers, she was on her feet and at my side.  She nudged my right hand once with her sweet little shepherd nose, gave me a lick and fell perfectly into step in the line.  Up the ramp we went, and I handed off my photo order form.  a little further up, and they flicked my tassel over to show I was a graduate.  Further still up the ramp, and as I was about to step onto the stage, I handed off my slip with my name written out so they could read it off, and so smoothly, Kirby and I stepped onto the stage together.  I was slightly concerned that she would want to breeze across the stage and blow past the students ahead of me, but she ambled along at graduation pace, and paused perfectly on the footprints for our photo.  As she paused, I reached out my right hand and shook hands with the dean of students.  I kept Kirby's leash around my left wrist, dropped her harness and took my deploma folder.  Hastily tucking the folder under my right arm, I picked up the harness handle, and with a discrete forward gesture of my right hand, we continued slowly across the stage.  Each time I stopped to shake a hand, Kirby paused perfectly and patiently as I was congradulated, and as soon as we dropped hands, she began her slow progress across the stage once more, always remembering to give me time to shake hands with the next person, and the next...

Upon exiting the stage, she picked up her pace on the ramp, and I was worried she would zip right past the other spot we had to pause for fotos, but, she stopped on a dime.  The sensation was no less precise then when she stops suddenly for a traffic check as an unexpected car comes lurching out of a driveway.  I was grinning in pleasure at my graduation and my dog's brilliance as they took my last foto.

As soon as the fotos were done, Kirby guided me confidently back to our seat in a sea of 1500, rested her head on the seat until I found it and then stood back to give me room to sit.  Once I was seated, she calmly walked up to me and rested her head on my knee.  I swear she was telling me, "Look Meg, we made it. Look how far we have come together."  

The day couldn't have gone more smoothly.  The martials and other folks at the ceremony were helpful in all of the right ways, but nothing they did made it look like I needed help crossing the stage, because I didn't.  They were just great at communicating with me..."This is where you hand in your foto slip, we're just moving your tassel over like we do for each student, here's where you turn in your name slip, congradulations, here's my hand, you'd better come back, we don't want to lose you..."

The only thing Kirby has disliked about college has been exiting lecture halls with the large crowds.  I have usually waited a few minutes for the crowds to thin out before leaving.  Yesterday, as the ceremony concluded, I promised her this was our last giant lecture hall we had to leave.  Typically, she would get a little bit anxious and pant a bit, but yesterday, she was so perfect pausing when the crowd was too thick, finding the little spaces to zip us through and picking up the pace as we approached the stairs to exit.  It was like she told herself she could do it if she wasn't going to have to do it again.

Together, we reached the top of the stairs and waited for my family.  I was covered in hugs and congradulations, and Kirby patiently sat at my side.  "I know it, my Meghan is great, isn't she?"  She leaned over and licked my hand, and I scratched behind those velvity silken ears.

We have done it.  For three of the four years of my college career, she has been at my side.  She has slept through classes, so I hope she forgives me for not having her name called in the graduation ceremony.  She is the only girl on the UW-campus who was applauded for her amazing ability to sleep through class, and the only one who made the professors smile when she let out an extensive groan right in the middle of a test.

Our next chapter is just beginning, but wherever we go, I am delighted to know that Kirby will be there for my first years learning what it is like to be a real adult!

Meghan with Kirby