ASU commencement last night . . . wow. It was amazing! Sure we had to arrive at the outdoor stadium at 3pm in the 102 degree Arizona sun, go through security and then commencement didn't begin until 7. But the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES was there. How cool. By the time commencement started the stadium was pretty much filled,especially if you counted all the students sitting ON the field. That's 70,000 people! Steve's MBA group was right in the middle of the field in the sun most of the afternoon but my group had seats way up in the stands just on the president's left and they were SHADED the entire time! Awesome. Doesn't get better than that.
Here's our group sitting up in the stands way up there. Me, Meredith, Jenna, and JT. Can you find us?
A view of the crowd. Thank goodness for casual dress!We had a great time hanging out and people watching and just chatting through the afternoon. Alice Cooper came and performed which was neat. Especially since JT is friends with Alice Cooper's sons that were in the band and he was calling their cell phones just before they came on stage. Too funny.
We were sitting just above where the snipers set up watch, which was way cool. And we had binoculars. Air Force One flew just overhead above the stadium to Sky Harbor about an hour before the ceremony. Then we had the perfect seats to see the president walk in. Awesome.
His speech was great. One of hope and encouragement. And of course he joked throughout about not receiving an honorary degree from ASU, which was cool. Then he stayed for the entire commencement and shook all the doctorate recipients' hands and others. Poor guy was sweating in that heat and wearing his robe.
All in all it was a great night and I'm so glad we went! A once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. I still can't believe so many chickened out because of the heat. Wussies!
(Thanks to Sabrina and Mer for these pictures!)
