Graduation: The Day After

Well, it's the day after, and I'm still in one piece. My mom--of course--cried during my graduation. It was actually not as magical as I thought it would be. When I arrived, I was with my friend. We went to the changing room and changed into our robes. Actually that was a waste of space--the changing room was useless. All the robes do is go over your regular clothes, so I missed the point of the changing rooms in the first place, but whatever. It's their party, I'm just attending it.
After we changed, we stood around for half an hour asking people where we were supposed to meet for the march. Of course, no one knew. When it finally came time for us to march in, we stood around for another 20 minutes at least. The people at the front started getting really bored, so they kept trying to convince--or bully us in some people's cases--into doing the wave. By this time, I was sick of everyone there and if I NEVER saw them again it would be too soon. Call me short tempered, but when a guy threatens to karate chop you in the throat if you step on the back of his robes, you don't suddenly feel a bond of kinsmanship for him.
Our principal told us not to bring beachballs, air horns, noise makers, party poppers, or anything like that. Silly string must be saved until the END of the ceremony. You can see where this is going right? By the time we got to the G's the silly string came out. I got nailed in the eyes and up my nose with a blast from the gentleman who threatened to karate chop me. Then, I got nailedi n the back of the neck with the hillbilly from behind--and trust me, he was a hillbilly in every sense of the word.
A beachball hit me in the head, knocking my glasses and graduation cap in to the floor. I had to scramble around and find them. Then, someone got mad at me for dodging when he tried to hit SOMEONE ELSE with silly string. His comfort words were, "Trust me, if I had been aiming for you, I would have hit you." The funny thing was, when he actually did aim for me, he missed.
By the time we go to the M's, it was chaos. Silly string was everywhere, and I was covered in it.
That night, to the surprise of no one I know, I did not party. I went straight home, and straight to bed.
All in all, though, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. When I went up to graduate, I heard my uncle, me cousin, and my grandpa screaming louder than my friends. It was, in a sense, magical at that moment. When I took my diploma in my hands, I had the sense of my past and my future colliding into one brief moment that made my heart skip a beat in fear and amazement.
I'm out of high school. I'll be out forever. I'll never go back. Now is the moment of the rest of my life. True, I'll have to go to college, but that's not the same as high school. The wheels of my life, more than ever, are turning. I imagine I'll feel the same when I graduate from college, but it feels like this is one of the most defining moments of my life. Afterall, everyone goes to high school, not everyone goes to college. My mom, although she did go for a couple of years, didn't finish college. She dropped out because I was having health problems, and my did never finished high school. This is a big first, and it's terrifiying and exciting. I hope I can make my family proud.