Along with footballs, balloons, giant bubbles and corn tortillas, there was pragmatism in the air at the 114th Commencement.
The Wacky Walk began precisely at 9:30 a.m. under a cloudless sky. Nine women dressed as a Marguerite shuttle, 12 players from the championship women’s rugby team and a dozen waltzing couples from Social Dances of North America led the way, accompanied by about 4,800 of their closest undergraduate and graduate friends.
Four women outfitted as iPods strolled around the track, looking trend-setting. A topographically correct Southeast Asian city-state was reproduced on three mortarboards by “Sing” (Joan Moh, ’05, MS ’05), “ap” (Shuzhen Sim, ’05, MS ’05) and “ore” (Jackie Crespo, ’05). Senior Diana “I’m in the shower” Gentry carefully regulated the water trickling from a headpiece faucet onto the yellow-ducky curtain that surrounded her. Public policy major Ahimsa Hodari, ’05, carried a sign reading: “The amount of my Stanford debt: $36,000. The smile on my dad’s face: priceless.” The loudest roar, when degrees were conferred, came from the rows of the probably employed: graduates of the Business School, who tossed green paper bills like confetti.
Wearing his signature jeans under a black gown, Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios CEO Steve Jobs received waves of applause for his plainspoken keynote talk about love, loss and death. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition,” he told the graduates. “They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” Front-row players of the traditional Commencement Bingo! scored victory points when Jobs used the words “dropout” and “future,” and it may well have been the first time the phrases Toy Story and Finding Nemo drew appreciative laughter in a graduation address.
