Experience graduation in Tbilisi

The introduction

Hello everyone, now I want to tell you about graduation in Georgia and how students graduate their high school, which is a great thing for them for the whole 12 years of their studies.

You may think, that it’s a regular day with some special events and things like that, however, everyone pays a great attention to the graduation day and especially parents. They are very proud of their children and try their best that day to be the best of their lives, I guess. they prepare everything for their children and do everything and they buy them new dresses and suits and things like that and have them be in a good shape, and, well, don’t forget the shirts! Those are the white shirts, that everyone must wear and they should have something painted or printed on them and then those already graduated students write things on each others’ shirts and have fun and so on and so forth. It’s the day, when students organize some farewell party and they have some jokes about teachers and then they have some music and dances and etc. though it’s not really like the graduation, which we have seen in movies, because there’s a big difference between them. And, well, to be honest, here in Georgia people mostly consist of parents on graduation, than the actual graduates, if you want to know the truth.

The preparation

Well, the preparation starts mostly not in the beginning of the year, but in the second semester, I guess, because then the students have made up their minds about the universities and everything and they just have exams in some of the school subjects. Nowadays, those school subjects are just four and the other four they have already passed in the year before. Some students don’t pass one of the exams and then they are left without the diploma of the school studies or whatever and that’s pretty bad, of course. Those students are not as happy as the other ones on the graduation day.

After the winter break, the second semester starts and students have time to think about some things about graduation day and how to end their studies with some ceremonies and stuff like that. The graduation day usually consists of going to school in the morning and then having a little ceremony and something like that and then going on an excursion somewhere.

The preparation for the ceremony usually consists of thinking of some jokes and, maybe, having some musical plays or theatrical ones or having some speeches. People usually gather together on that day for those things and to write something on the graduates white shirts, because that’s the most popular process for everybody there. Though it’s not that easy to finally prepare some good things, because there may be some arguments about some things and students may not agree with each other on some things and they can even fight with each other. That usually happens in many cases. And there are those teachers, who are responsible for the whole classes and those teachers decide mainly what the students will do on that graduation ceremony. And there are the parents, who decide many things there and, well, students are left with no voice there, if you want to know the truth. However, it all depends on the class and the students and everything. for example, there are classes, where the students decide everything and not the teachers and not even the parents can change their minds. And in the “parents” I mean the mothers, because usually fathers don’t participate in those things in any ways and they don’t even go to school on the graduation day as the mothers do. Of course, they are proud of their children, but it’s like a law or something not to be present at school on the graduation day. And the mothers are there for the both of them and they even go on those excursions, which are planned on the graduation day. You know, that’s really interesting and surprising thing, that mothers usually have more fun on the excursions of their children, than the children actually, because they don’t let them have any fun at all, if you want to know the truth. And those excursions are like the only thing, that can help students get along with each other, because then they don’t care too much about their phones and the games in them and mostly communicate with each other. I loved my excursions, though we went to the same places mostly, I guess, and we hadn’t been to the west of Georgia, while people went to all the very interesting places on their excursions and I always wanted to go somewhere to Kazbegi or Racha or Svaneti or something like that. However, the further we went was Vardzia at the end of the year befor graduation as I remember correctly. And it was very enjoyable, if you want to know the truth. We had much fun and it was good, that somehow the parents and us had an agreement and we went to Vardzia on an excursion. However, we had to compromise that we wanted to go there for two days, and the parents didn’t want that, because they also wanted to come and no one really wanted to sleep in the bus , I guess, so that we agreed on one day Vardzia excursion and that was it.

The graduation day

Anyways, as it’s regular or whatever, you can have a graduation day even if you are not graduating. I mean, it’s like everyone’s graduating on that day. The teachers try to have classes on that day, however, the students don’t want to listen to them and they want to attend the ceremony of the graduation and they finally get out of the classes with or without force and they get to the place, where the ceremony is held and they participate in writing on shirts. You should see that process, when everyone’s holding some pens or markers or things like that in their hands and they write on anyone’s shirts, if they get agreed on that, and sometimes they don’t even ask those students and just write something like “congratulations” or whatever. Those little students just want to write on those shirts and they don’t really care whether they know those students or not and whether they want to have their writings on their shirts or not. So that, there’s a whole mess in the school yard and people are crowded and no one really understands what is happening there, if you want to know the truth.

Then the ceremony begins and the first one to have a speech is the principle of the school or the major of the city or someone from the ministry of education or something like that and they congratulate the students on their high school graduation, of course, and wish them the very best and passing the exams and great things in life and so on and so forth and then comes that planned ceremony, which is prepared by the students and the class, in general. Sometimes there are two classes or even more and they usually want to have separate ceremonies and they are held in different rooms or whatever.

After that ceremony, there may be some certificates and nominations for some students, which were well-known in some things and then comes noon or something like that and it’s time to leave for the excursion. Usually people go somewhere nearby , so that they can be at home in the midnight or something. However, some classes plan a two day trip somewhere and that’s even better for them, if you want to know the truth, because that way they have a communication with each other more closely and they have some great memories from that trip, that they can remember for the rest of their lives.

To tell you the truth, it was more enjoyable graduating from high school in my town, than it is in Tbilisi. However, that’s just my opinion and not the major thought. It is like you know all the people around who are graduating and you can go to their schools, too, which are pretty close and nearby and you can even go there on foot. There were 4 schools in all in our town and we all knew each other and we visited each other’s schools on the graduation day and we wrote on each other’s shirts and it was just great. We loved going here and there and soon, after some time, we had to get back to our school because we had to go to our excursion. Our excursion was in Shiomghvime and then we went to Mtskheta and then we had a picnic on a field somewhere nearby and though some of us wanted to sit inside a building somewhere and have a meal there, some of us didn’t want that and then it was decided to have a picnic in the nature and not in a building somewhere. They wanted to have a fire and sit around it and have some fun.

Anyways, the graduation day is one of the greatest days in Georgians’ lives and they love it more than prom, I guess. it’s the day, when they say good-bye to school and they never want to go back there, though there are some people, who don’t want to leave it and are planning on visiting it some time later, too.

So, what I wanted to tell you is, that if you are in Georgia during the late spring and, in particular, in May, you should know, that there are graduation days in all of the schools in the whole Georgia and attending any of them would be a pleasure for you, because even if you don’t know the people around there, you will still be able to write something on anybody’s shirt and wish them well and stuff like that and you will have much fun in watching them be happy for the graduation. It’s an amazing day for the ones who graduate and their parents and they want to enjoy the day as much as they can. Well, at least, you can help them take pictures in those white shirts, if nothing else! I remember, how I was preparing for painting something on my white shirt and then I was surfing the Internet to find something and then , when I found some pictures, I couldn’t really decide which one I wanted, so that I combined those pictures together with my Photoshop skills and then I went to my classmate, who could print those things on shirts and stuff like that and he printed that picture on my shirt pretty well.

Anyways, one shouldn’t miss this day of graduation and people especially go to some schools or their old schools to watch others graduate and remember those times, when they were graduating and relive the day again, I guess.