"Have they already deleted seniors from the phone directory?"
John Snyder, a Trinity senior himself, sat in his sweltering dorm room trying to locate a friend's e-mail address as his family watched. Dressed in khaki pants, a blue button-down and red tie, Snyder typed in his own name to check; indeed, according to the online database of Duke undergraduates, "John Snyder" no longer existed.
Of course, as they headed to the public policy studies luncheon and awards ceremony Saturday afternoon, the Snyder family still included one Duke student-not until Sunday would they become the proud parents and sister of a Duke graduate.
Hailing from Beaver Falls, Pa., the Snyders have witnessed a graduation before: John's older sister, Alison, graduated from Wheaton College in 1998. But there is at least one major difference between the two events: Alison graduated with a class of about 500, as compared to John's class of about 1,500.
Still, some traditions remain. For example, in honor of John's paternal grandfather, who passed away in 1994, both John and his father wore Old Spice aftershave to Alison's graduation. Sure enough, Dr. David Snyder pulled his father's jar of the splash out of his coat pocket: Both father and son wore the aftershave Sunday, too.
"I'm running low, though I might have enough for a couple of weddings, a Nobel prize, maybe some grandkids," joked John's father before the ceremony.
"It's been nice to have him here-he really loves it. It's the only school he really applied to...," said John's mother, Kathy. "They should hire him in the public relations office."
Actually, Snyder will be in Washington, D.C. starting in June. The political science and public policy studies double major landed a job with SRA, an information technology and systems integration consulting firm.
During Sunday's festivities, the family looked on proudly-with Mom snapping photos-as the crowd of seniors received their degrees. "It was a very impressive ceremony," said Snyder's father. "I get emotional very easily, but I will try not to.... I embarrass my children."
The graduate, on the other hand, kept his cool throughout the ceremony, making snide comments about all the pomp and circumstance.
"The whole conferring of degrees thing got a little tiresome," he said. Still, he admitted, "It's exciting just to see all the pageantry and everyone running around in their Harvard and Yale robes."
Kathy Snyder, now a parent of two college graduates, is not fazed by the fact that her two children are now adults.
"We'll see in a few months how grown-up they stay," she laughed.
And John Snyder, now an official Duke alumnus, has some advice for those who follow him through the Gothic Wonderland.
"Don't be intimidated...," he said. "Relax a little bit, don't take things too seriously. But I think all seniors say that after they've been through it."
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