The pay goes up
My last day on land was hot and clear, with only a few cirrus clouds breaking up the sky at a
high altitude. Down on the Academy quad, campus was temporarily transformed from a sleepy backwater into mass of sun dresses, academic regalia, and grandfathers in Dockers as a standing room only crowd overflowed from under an enormous white circus tent. The occasion was the graduation ceremony of 144 cadets, dressed in their salt and pepper uniforms, ready to take on their watery destinies.
Of course it was thirty three of these seniors whom I dragged through nine credit hours worth of electrically conductive muck this year. And of course my shit was not nearly together enough to have made the necessary arrangements to be part of the ceremony. So I put on my emergency dress shirt, positioned myself at the front of their formation, and intercepted my students one by one to quickly shake their hands as they marched in line to the tent.
I couldn’t have cared less about my own graduation, but something wholesome-seeming about the cadets’ enthusiasm won me over this afternoon. Rita, who, despite an admirable work ethic, struggled all year, found me after the ceremony. Until that moment, I had been completely unsure if my ongoing efforts to encourage her made any difference; she gave me a huge hug and squeaked “thank you so much for everything.” Ryan introduced me as his teacher to his mom, who’s surprise suggested that she was expecting me to be the janitor or something. I looked at him and we laughed. It was damn wholesome.
And as quickly as they appeared, the masses dissipated and suddenly there was nothing left to do but to consider my own watery destiny. I walked to the top of the cliff to get one last glimpse of campus and the Bear, plopped under the Carquinez Bridge for one last night this summer. And then I stole the golf cart, drove my stuff to the dock, and moved in to my cabin. I’m not sure what to expect, really. But I have a great room, the best job on the ship, and 20,000km of water ahead of me: it’s time to get off this rock.
[the dock]
[my cabin]
April 29th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Congrats on graduating your first class bro.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
[…] It turned out to be one of those moments, like graduation or our arrival in Kobe last summer, that made me feel love for my job and the people involved with it. I found most of my seniors moseying around, dressed fancy, looking slightly uneasy. Here, in their quest for maritime employment between two Division III basketball nets, they suddenly seemed young. For a few moments, I was struck by the idea that I might be doing something here beyond amusing myself for twelve hours a week. And they all seemed very happy to see me. Then, I walked to my office and read celebrity gossip on Yahoo. […]