Entry 002 – Date: 06.03.3206 – Location: Sol Naval Academy

Yesterday was a blast. Truly, if you had asked me three years ago how I would imagine my graduation, this would have been it.

Dates with Evelyn always hit the right balance between fun and romantic and while we only had time for a nice lunch and some conversation, it was still very sweet.

Eve loved her present. I got her a custom satchel that conforms to the guidelines that the navy sets on personal effects. She claimed that she what appreciates most is how practical it is. She said that with such a genuine smile that someone who doesn’t know her would take that at face value.

I know the truth though. She is just a hopeless romantic at heart. She just hides it behind a façade of discipline most times. The custom embroidery is what actually makes the present for her.

It turned out that she also had gotten something for me. It’s a holographic photo album. She had apparently been taking pictures at most events we’ve been to. I’ve never been much for recordings, but I’ll treasure this one. Even better, the moments she had captured were not only of the two of us, but also of the rest of our little group of friends.

After we parted I met up with mom and we headed towards the ceremony together.

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The graduation ceremony itself went as expected. Both the practice we did beforehand and the ones I had attended before had shown me what it would be like, so there were no surprises. Still, standing on that stage, facing the crowd of thousands was extremely nerve wrecking.

After a “short”, 45-minute speech by the academy head administrator and another one by the valedictorian it was finally the student’s time to shine.

My graduating class consists of over 2000 students which are subdivided into sections of about 50. During the ceremony, each of the section’s main instructors were lined up on stage handing out certificates and receiving salutes in return.

Because the stage was not big enough for all 40 sections the organizers split them into groups of 10 which, when they had finished, were replaced by the next 10.

I, being part of section 19, was smack in the middle of the ceremony. Thankfully, everything proceeded smoothly.

Afterwards everybody, happily graduated, met up with our respective families and exchanged personal congratulations.

But the fun was not over yet.

While we were waiting for our turn in the spotlight, a secret whisper had spread amongst us. I don’t know who started it, but the message was clear: Come to hanger 12 for the real party. It seemed the rumors about the section 3 secret party were true after all.

With this in mind, I still took some time to celebrate with mom. Soon I bid her goodbye and promised her to meet up later today. Next, I collected Evelyn as well as the guys and we went to figure out what the fuss was all about.

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Whatever we had been expecting, it wasn’t this. Somebody had found, hired, or stolen one of the academy’s huge cargo haulers and set up the party inside its storage.

This was genius.

Cargo haulers of that type are commonly used to ship large amounts of basically anything between orbital stations and sometimes even planets. They are slow and bulky, but they were designed around a huge Cargo hold that could easily hold our graduating class twice over.

Moreover, it was not just a suitable venue, it was perfect. After everyone was present, the hauler closed up and departed the station. That way none of the academy monitors could find and shut down the unlicensed party.

Only when we were a good distance away the real party started. Whoever had organized the party had stocked up on a variety of recreational drugs and given us the opportunity to enjoy them. Everybody was hyped from the graduation, so things quickly got busy.

People were talking, dancing and generally having fun. There were even a couple of surprises.

Midway through the party somebody shut off the artificial gravity.

It wasn’t my first zero G party of course, but I would say that it might have been the best one yet. If you have never experienced it and you like to dance, the acrobatics you can get up to when you’re weightless will blow your mind.

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I still can’t remember how exactly I got back to my room. The hauler must have returned to the academy at some point and it’s a miracle that me and my friends managed to get from the hangers to the dorm without getting caught.

Anyway, after having taken a metabolic cleanser earlier, I’m starting to feel alive again.

I don’t have much planned for today. I’ll head out to meet mom in an hour. Time for a more casual celebration. Maybe I’ll get the guys together in the evening. Nothing big, but with our pending assignments it might be a long while until we get the chance again.

Let’s carpe those diems until then.

Logging off