...by the flickering lantern light.
So my female counterparts on the pinning committee have apparently been lamenting the lack of tradition in our pinning ceremony. Never mind the fact that we're having it on the same day as graduation (per tradition), buying class pins (per tradition), having them pinned individually by the important person of our choice(per tradition), all the while pictures and voiceovers play on the large video screen behind us (per tradition). But that not-withstanding, the ladies of the committee decided we need more tradition.
Their first suggestion was traditional nurse caps, and to have a traditional capping ceremony. Uh... Well, let's put this simply. I am NOT wearing a cap. And I also don't particularly feel it's right that my female classmates get to participate in something while us guys stand around awkwardly trying to find a place to shove our hands in embarrassment. Lucky for me there was enough female opposition to caps that it didn't come down to a "Remember the Alamo!" moment for us carriers of the Y chromosome.
Next on the list of ever so bright ideas was the suggestion that we carry in lanterns, a la good 'ole Flo Nightingale. Except it was pretty apparent that a bunch of giddy nursing students (over a hundred of us actually) playing with fire probably wasn't a terribly bright idea. Especially since most everyone in my class is going to have highly flammable breath due to some in-effective coping as evidenced by heavy EtOH intake. So someone suggested an even brighter idea. You see, "they" make those neat little battery powered candle shaped lights. Apparently they flicker and everything.
Oh Em Gee!! Tacky fo shizzle! Or whatever these young kids say these days.
I am hoping and praying that this proposal dies a quiet and unnoticed death on the committee floor. This is one time my class's astounding lack of motivation and participation could really pay off for me.
I have already decided that if this comes to fruition, I am painting my lantern in orange and black sharpie to look like a jack 'o lantern...
All my college honor society inductions involved fire for some reason. We never set anything aflame though.
ReplyDeleteWhat about a bedazzled bed pan?
M
I'm interested to see how your grad goes! Flickering faux candles sounds..... uh, lame.
ReplyDeleteOur grad year is considering rings in lieu of caps. The rings are nongendered and smooth so they could theoretically be worn during practice.
http://www.blackbanddesigns.com/
I kinda like em :)
POP: A bedazzled bed pan? Now that has potential...
ReplyDeleteUGRN: Very cool, I like them too!
haha have to laugh at the whole flickering candle and your reaction.
ReplyDeleteUGRN: I'm diggin' those rings too. I'd wear one, if I ever get to that point. :-I
I second the bedpan idea...
ReplyDeleteWe wore caps at our grad and I hated it. I never did wear my cap at work although it was the rigeur du jour back then. I hated them with a passion and could never figure out why so many nurses wore them back then. They would fall off, get stuck in the curtains at bedside, get covered with whatever body fluids were flying around....they didn't swab clean at all. They should NEVER be a symbol that is cherished. There are lots of other things that can be used for symbolism if they are feeling nostalgic, but BURY THE CAPS. As for the lanterns...perhaps they could bury that idea along with the caps. What's wrong with the simple pinning? Mind you, we were handed a fake diploma because our actual university grad wasn't until the spring, and no one in our class wanted to wait around for that. Then we we had a dance that I hung around at for all of 1/2 hour. As you can tell, I am not big on ceremony. They could just send the pin in the mail for all I cared. Oh. Just a minute. That's exactly what happened. We ordered and bought our own nursing pins and they came in the mail. :)
ReplyDeleteWe had to order and buy our own nursing pins, which were then presented at the um...pinning. Our school used to let the grad nurses have a lovely ceremony with slide show and one's chosen meaningful person doing the actual pinning. All of which changed just in time for our pinning. The auditorium was magically "unavailable" (though it stood empty the day of our pinning), and we were stuck in a GYM. Our audience was on hard metal folding chairs. And the basketball hoops were DOWN. Someone made jokes about playing a game of "horse". I said we'd do better playing "nurse". Same number of letters. We didn't have enough risers to stand on during the ceremony that none of us had any input into, and we were forced to hold the dorky lamps with real burning flames, while we stood PACKED like sardines. It is a total miracle that no one's hair caught fire and that there were no burn care or mass casualty demonstrations on stage at the pinning. The instructor I hated most pinned me, while the wonderfully supportive husband who worked extra hours to put me through school sat his bad back down on a hard folding metal chair in a gym that smelled like dirty socks. It should have been one of the most meaningful days of my life. Instead, it was one of the most pathetic and most irritating. I'm no longer mad at the classmate who wore her red heart panties so they would show through the white scrubs. We all should have mooned the adminstration, honestly.
ReplyDeleteWil: I'm not surprised, haha!
ReplyDeleteCC: I'm glad I'm not the only one!
Dianne: Holy wow! What a nightmare!