On the morning of my first graduation ceremony, I woke up about 6:30 a.m. to get ready and sleepily did my makeup while eating a few spoonfuls of peanut butter. My plan was to meet friends at a designated area and then find seats together in the stadium, but I started to feel anxious. I was graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with a master's in information management. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin as an undergrad in 2020, so everything was virtual then. This would be my first in-person graduation, and I was starting to feel the nerves.

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