Katie & Justin

All this talk about “mauve” — or, “moo-ah-vay,” as Justin pronounces it — reminded me of a funny story of mine from high school. It has nothing to do with the wedding, but writing about mauve over and over again brought back memories of “Maude” so allow me to reminisce here with you.

A few days before my high school graduation, the senior class had to do a rehearsal where we all got together in the gymnasium and went through the motions of the ceremony. I was lucky enough to have a few good friends with last names next to me in the alphabet, so we spent most of the time chatting and goofing around. At one point, our teacher passed around a clipboard with our names on it so we could verify everything was spelled correctly. The sheet only had middle initials, so we were also supposed to fill in our middle names, so we were told.

I had almost finished writing in “Marie” — my real middle name — when it dawned on me: As long as it started with an “m”, I could write down whatever I wanted! At the time, I thought it would be hilarious to pick a random name. I figured I had to do something to make that ceremony interesting for my family. After all, there were about 650 seniors walking across that stage. It was going to be a looooong day.

Laughing with my friends, we tried to narrow down the options. The name couldn’t be too crazy, or they wouldn’t read it. We wanted something ugly, and borderline believable. So we settled on Maude!

Maybe it was the fact that I spent 15 minutes trying to write down my middle name, or that I started to put Marie and then crossed it out, but when my teacher saw Maude written on the clipboard, he knew it was a hoax. He called me out on it, and my friends and I couldn’t contain our laughter and admitted he was right. But then I begged him to read it anyway.

“No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “Because then I’m going to get a call from angry parents about how I ruined your graduation ceremony.”

“They’ll think it’s funny, I swear!” I pleaded.

“No, no, no, no, no!” he said as he walked away from us, ending the issue.

I was so bummed. Now the ceremony was just going to be boring and normal. I blew my chance to do something fun. Why bother even going to the graduation now?!

But I did still go. I remember walking up to the stage, nervous that I would trip even in my short little heels. I stood anxiously in line as my turn quickly approached. And then I heard it: “Kathleen (long pause) MAUDE Drews.”

OMG! He did it!

I SO did not see that coming. And the joke ended up being on me because instead of walking across the stage nice and composed, I was totally cracking up and in such shock that I don’t even know if I shook hands with the principal as I was supposed to do. But the fact that my teacher turned the tables on me and surprised me with that made it even better!

For the record, that teacher did not get an angry call from my folks. My family got a kick out of the whole thing. And that teacher still goes down in the books as one of my favorites!! :)

Fast forward to four years later. At my college ceremony, I, of course, graduated again as Kathleen Maude Drews. It’s a tradition now! But because it was college this time around, I tried to up the ante and have them change my diploma to Kathleen Maude Drews. Sadly, I couldn’t get that one through….

 

I couldn’t find any pictures from my high school graduation, but this one is from 8th grade: