by Tim Gillie

STAFF WRITER

This is graduation season but as I try to look back upon my graduation from high school, I honestly don't remember much. I tried to locate a program from my graduation to jog my memory -- after all, 30 years is a long way to jog.

I looked in a dusty box in my garage and found my graduation cap, a picture of me in my gown, and a program for the Timberline High School class of 1973's graduation. That was my old alma mater in Lacey, Wash., but the graduating class was two years ahead of mine.

Assuming the program was similar, lots of people talked to us grads -- teachers, administrators and students. Then we walked across the stage, shook a lot of hands, got an empty diploma case and sat back down. I know the speakers said something about commencement being a beginning, not an end. I assume graduations today are very similar.

I do remember the music. The senior class had a vote to decide the theme song for our graduation. "The Way We Were" by Barbra Streisand was the announced winner. I never heard the song.

Immediately after the announcement, there was a buzz throughout the school. Nobody would admit to voting for the winning song. "The Long and Winding Road" by Paul McCartney was supposed to be the winner. I had never heard it either.

The school administration was accused of fixing the election. As a student body officer, I was nominated to confront the principal and demand a re-vote. That is when I learned it wasn't my graduation after all. According to the principal, graduation was for my parents, grandparents, teachers, and any other community members that had tolerated me for 12 years of school and now wanted to say good-bye in their way.

The theme song would not be changed. However, I did get selected to serve on the committee that was planning the ceremony. That is where I learned my first lesson in compromise. I proposed that "The Long and Winding Road" be the song played as we marched out of graduation. The committee agreed -- after some convincing.

Now whenever I hear either of those songs I think back to graduation. Their lyrics are both profound and appropriate to the occasion. And when we marched out to "The Long and Winding Road," we held our heads high as we thought we had leveraged our people-power to force the administration into playing our song on our day.

"The Way We Were" was Streisand's first No. 1 single in the United States, and "The Long and Winding Road" was the Beatles' last No. 1 single. A first and a last hit seemed fitting for the day. It was very metaphorical as graduation from high school leaves you with lots of "misty, water-colored memories" while dumping you on a "long and winding road" to your future. The twists and turns that have taken me to where I am today, I never would have foreseen. But it was largely a serendipitous road, filled with happy surprises.

So good luck, graduates. You may not remember your graduation ceremony years later, but do remember the good times from your past and keep your dreams in your heart as you embark on your own long and winding road.

tgillie@tooeletranscript.com