Graduation and Grad Night

I came home from grad night at 6 in the morning today and slept until 4 p.m., which is two hours ago. What a crazy two days.

A brief summary:

Senior Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and potatoes a.k.a. the entire meal minus bacon were terrible. But the senior video and open mic part 2 made up for it. An's speech was hm humbling and Jennifer Choi was hilarious as usual. I got the "most likely to take over the world with intelligence, wit, and humor" class award along with a package of army men. I think if I took over the world, the first thing I would do is demand my own massage parlor and then visit different parts of the world. For some reason, I keep thinking I would like multiple concubines but I wouldn't know what to do with them.

Graduation: I was anxious for no particular reason. I'm glad I didn't sign up for a speech because I would've been too nervous to deliver it properly, and the people who did deliver speeches did an awesome job. Jake and James provided a great opening punch with their interplay, which started with Kanye West's "Amazing." Peter was sincere and poised, Lauren humble and proud, and Anaoshak ooh'ed the crowd with his slight at the basketball team record (I heard Meloche praise the placement and rhetorical efficacy of the comment afterward).

After the ceremony, I took a lot of pictures with friends and tried to smile as often as possible. It felt good to shake hands and give them a pat on the back. And then I took some pictures with my entire family, which I hadn't done in many, many years.

Grad Night: I used to play mini golf quite frequently so I enjoyed reliving those memories. My putting skill was still intact and I sank several shots from the edges of the course. Erik Carpio lost something like four balls in a row because he tried to hit some of the props (lighthouse, windows of a mansion, etc). I played laser tag for the first time and it was ok. I wish the system kept track of my kills and deaths for bragging rights, but it was still pretty fun to run around sniping people. The whole maze setting with the pulsating music was entertaining. Arcade games were kind of boring just because I don't really enjoy racing or shooting games, and I also sucked at the mini bowling. I find it troubling that I can't even roll a ball straight.

The highlight of the night/morning was undoubtedly the hypnotist. One of the first things he said when he introduced himself was that he was a certified professional. I laughed because that's like saying you are certified in kicking ass or being a bitch, but I was intrigued nevertheless because I had never seen a "live hypnosis show" as he called it. I actually thought about volunteering for the heck of it but I figured I couldn't be hypnotized without a chemical aid. When the show finally started, the guy droned on and on about relaxing and going to sleep. Deeper and deeper, your worries and problems are melting away, blah blah that shit. Surprisingly, Kathleen was out in maybe two minutes. She was slumped forward with her head hanging down. Most of the volunteers- Rachel Burley, Boawen, Gerard, Peter Nguyen, and of course Albert- were not hypnotized but they decided to stay up there anyway and go along with it. Albert's acting was hilarious.

The two people that I confidently believed would not be hypnotized, however, did. Jake and Vaibhav. The hypnotist told Jake to make sure no one laughs, and he started getting angry at all of us. He was completely serious the whole time and took care of the situation the way I would expect him to in real life. I know he was not acting because knowing him, he would not have been able to hold back his laughter. Then in another sequence, the hypnotist told the volunteers to laugh at everything he said as if it were the funniest thing they had ever heard. Jake laughed the way he normally does - and even said out loud "what a funny motherfucker" - but there were clearly signs of derangement or an unnatural compulsion of sort. As for Vaibhav, when the hypnotist pretended to give out lottery tickets for a $80 mil jackpot, he started crying when he realized he hadn't won. And when told to show off a new Ferrari to a hot girl, he put on some hilariously grotesque face expressions I had never seen before.

Anyway while all of this was absolutely hilarious for the most part, I couldn't help feeling uneasy and at some moments, terrified by my friends' behavior. The thought of being able to control somebody like that is frightening. I still stick with my belief, though, that it is possible to "fight off" hypnosis by remaining skeptical and alert.