Dont go to convocation

Nicholas Maronese Editor-in-Chief Its easy to romanticize your convocation. The big white tent, freshly pressed gowns, friends, family and summer sunshine. This is it! Youve made it! Youve earned your post-secondary degree and now its time to celebrate! Its not so rosy when you look at it realistically. What is convocation really? Ive never been to a university convocation ceremony myself, but from what I hear, its basically three incredibly boring hours of you sitting there, waiting, biding your time texting friends until the MC mispronounces your name and calls you to shake hands with someone youve never met and dont really care about. He hands you a slip of paper meant to represent your degree: your proof-ofpurchase from York University. (Natalie Livshitz) Its all about packaging and presentation, really. Its the institutions way of saying, We now present our new 2011 product line! Of course, they say it in Latin, just so you dont catch on. If you really wanted to celebrate with friends and family, you can do it someplace else, away from the eyes of hundreds of strangers. If you really wanted to enjoy the summer sun, youd go for a bike ride instead of sitting in a chair. And your real degree? You cant pick it up until the month after the ceremony. But the university is a business, as well as a place of learning, and the best way to stay in business is to make a real show every time you come out with a new model. But Im on the honour roll! you protest. I have to go! Im on the deans list! Oh, yes. Youre one of those premium special editions, are you? Youre part of the Golden Key top 15 percent? That makes me, you and a few thousand other people. What do those accolades really mean in the end? Are they going to make you happier, or more successful? Unless youre trying to get into a graduate program, your grades dont mean anything now that your four years are up. But convocation is more than empty and unfulfilling; its