I still can’t believe that all things come to an end. On Friday, May 17th I graduate from Graduate School at NYU. It has been a long ride since October 2019 when I came on campus for the first open house. The there were those dozen Zoom meetings during COVID preparing us for classes when they resumed. I thought the campus would never open up again and then it did when I entered in September of 2022. It figured that was the semester my boss gave me three classes to teach. Talk about a balancing act with three classes to teach and four classes to take.

Still here it is a year and a half later and this adventure has taken me from Washington Square Park to Paris, Prague, Abu Dhabi and Dubai with stop overs in Palermo and Punxsutawney, PA. That trip to see the groundhog really changed me.

Then came ‘Grad Alley’, our last official event before graduation. On an extremely gloomy night with a storm approaching, I headed in Manhattan for my last day of being a student before graduation. I almost did not head in because the threat of rain. I waited until almost 4:00pm and nothing and I thought ‘what the hell, there is free hot dogs involved’.

There was much more than that and I ended up having a wonderful time. I wish more colleges did something like this. This was a great to spend a great night in the City and my last night as a NYU student.

The Undergraduates in front of the fountain in Washington Square Park. They had graduated that afternoon.

Grad Alley at 5:00pm at the start of the event.

The crowds were huge as I guessed that everyone else thought the way I did, throw caution to the wind. It looked like everyone had a blast. There was all sorts of campus entertainment, games, music and especially the food. Campus foodservice did an excellent job supplying the food and drinks.

Me getting in line for the first Cotton Candy I have eaten in a decade.

The entertain was excellent. The professionals knew how to perform for a crowd. The first person I watched was the Electric Violin player. She was great!

The electric guitar player that evening.

She was excellent and knew how to engage the crowd. She played the classics and then the pop tunes. She kept it going for three sets.

Keeping going through the second song.

This street fair wrapped around the southern right corner of Washington Square and two full city blocks of entertainment and food.

The crowds just kept growing for that early evening.

The man on stilts played games with the crowd.

There was a lot of great entertainment all over the place. On top of the people on stilts playing toss with students, there were mimes amusing parents and jugglers having a ball showing how it is done.

As I made my around the blocks of tents I stopped in for hot dogs, soft pretzels, cotton candy, grapes and trail mix, bags of chips, the ice cream carts for eclair ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches, popcorn and soda. I stopped figuring out how much I ate after the second ice cream bar and soft pretzel. This is when I am in high heaven. I love ‘Carnival food’. I have not eaten things like this in so long that I really enjoyed it. “Junk Food” is very underrated.

After my several snacks, I stopped to see the entertainment and that was enjoyable. The first stop was the wonderful jazz music of the 9th Street Stompers playing all the Cole Porter and Count Basie classics.

The guys did a wonderful job and I could see that they had been playing for years. It was fun to hear songs from the well known Broadway shows.

The group kept all of entertained and it was hard to see at times because the crowds were so large. I was able to get this picture in during a quick lull.

Then I walked around to where everyone was playing carnival games but the lines were so long, I said to myself that there was other things to do. That’s when I stopped over to see the NYU Cheerleaders perform.

I can see the reason why we did so well in sports. Our cheerleaders do such great a great job and use such great music for their routines.

A video of our cheerleaders performing:

The NYU Cheerleaders

After another round of snacks (I am sorry but those soft pretzels and caramel corn were so good!), I walked around some more and then stopped to listen to the NYU Songwriters perform. These kids were really good.

The NYU Songwriting Program

Candice singing about being a “Strawberry Shortcake”

Video on Candice singing “I’m a Strawberry Shortcake”. She was really good:

Evan singing “An Echo of my Own”. Here is the video on the song. He did a great job:

We went into ‘Ho Down’ mode when this cowboy sang some classic tunes and then his own country music.

I am telling you I want to see the kid in Nashville because he will shock all the southerners with his talent. NYU produced a talented cowboy who could lead the ‘Texas Two Step’. His original songs were terrific.

Getting some Churros before they were all gone. I am not sure who in NYU food service was running the show but they did a terrific job! There was plenty of food for everyone.

Then it rained for about fifteen minutes and that really thinned the crowds. It did not even rain that hard but the crowds cleared out. I just pulled out my umbrella and continued to listen to the NYU Songwriters perform. I really enjoyed this.

All good things come to an end and 8:00pm rolled around. Before I left, I had another hot dog (the ladies gave me a double hot dog and I thanked them in both English and Spanish) and soda and stopped to eat. That’s when I saw the line for pictures with ‘Lady Liberty’ disappear. She had real patience as I finished up eating. She could not have been nicer and we took a great picture and had a nice talk.

Justin with Lady Liberty.

With all that food in me and still humming some of the NYU Songwriters tunes, I decided to walk back to Port Authority. The rain had stopped and it was a warm night. I stayed long enough to see the campus wrap things up pretty quickly.

All good things do come to an end even after a wonderful evening in Manhattan. Even pass 8:00pm, people were still milling around.

As I walked up Broadway (my favorite route), I passed the Empire State Building lit for our graduation. I can not believe that I have been part of this for the last two years. It is still surreal to me.

The Empire State Building lit for NYU Graduation

I still can’t believe that I am done and will be graduating on Friday night. A year and a half has gone by so fast. The travels through Manhattan have taken me to Paris, Prague, Palermo, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In a year and a half, I have seen the world and then some!

Passing through the NoMAD neighborhood on my way home.

It was a great night and a lot of fun. I could not have imagined that I would have had this much fun on my last night on campus but this being my fifth time to college and my third graduation ceremony I will be attending I am becoming a pro at this.

‘Grad Alley’ was a great time and the best way to spend my last day as a student at NYU.

Wish me luck at Graduation!

Read about my graduation from NYU!:

https://mywalkinmanhattan.com/