Graduation Ceremony: Class of Round 20

Welcome, one and all to the first university graduation ceremony for Tranquility Creek. We'd like to thank the staff at both the University of Britechester and the Foxbury Institute for setting aside their rivalry and allowing our graduates to participate in this shared commencement ceremony. Please join us in congratulating the graduates as they enter the auditorium.

Gemini Kauker: Distinguished Degree in Fine Art 

Flick Palmer: Distinguished Degree in Art History

Sunshine Flenderson: Distinguished Degree in Communication

Kayla Flemming: Distinguished Degree in Biology

Snow Flenderson: Distinguished Degree in Language & Literature

Asteroid Kauker: Distinguished Degree in Physics

Keeley Dunn: Degree in Economics

Sprite Lytle: Distinguished Degree in Computer Science

Hank Palmer: Distinguished Degree in Biology

Houston Palmer: Distinguished Degree in Culinary Arts

Wind Flenderson: Distinguished Degree in Biology

Dragon Lytle: Distinguished Degree in Physics

Tempera Bernard: Distinguished Degree in Psychology

Libra Kauker: Distinguished Degree in History

Harrison Palmer: Distinguished Degree in Language and Literature

Mark Palmer: Distinguished Degree in Drama

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Throughout their time at college, our graduates found themselves exposed to all sorts of new experiences. They learned new skills...





made new friends...

and even found love.

Of course, the journey wasn't always easy. Some faced what many would consider otherworldly adversity...

But with the support of their family...

their friends...

and each other...

they have reached the height of their potential. We know that each one of them will continue to do great things in the future for the betterment of their community as they adapt to life's great challenges.

 

This concludes the graduation ceremony for the Class of Round 20. Please help yourself to refreshments on your way out. Oh, what's that? We're being told that the mysterious voice actually has a quick message:

A Message from the Mysterious Voice:

So, um...yeah. Bit of a surprise in there, huh? Let me back up a bit. I have been mulling over how to incorporate University into this blog for months now. Back in Tranquility Bay, I would just list off the "gradutes" and that would be it. (In all honesty, that was mostly because I tended to...let's say fast track the university experience in TS2. I was in college myself at the time and the last thing I wanted was to worry about my Sims' grades as well as my own.) With TS4, it was a bit more complicated. Because I have to play through the entirety of a University degree at once, I ended up with 100+ pictures from each of the three households. At first, I thought about doing one post per household, but that felt repetitive. Then I thought about doing the "just list the graduates" again...but then the game threw me a curveball in the form of two new "additions".

So, apparently the off-campus "dorm" lot I built for my 3rd household must have some sort of alien marker on it. Every Sim in that household got abducted at some point during their University course, but Asteroid and Houston ended up being the lucky two who got pregnant. This left me in a bit of a pickle, as I had already decided that my Sims were not going to age during University. That meant that the babies stayed babies for three straight weeks. (On the upside, all six of the adults had fantastic parenting skills by graduation.) I ended up aging them up manually after the adults had passed their final exams, so they'll start their first real week in town as toddlers. They've been babies for long enough. I can safely say that I was not expecting any of my Sims to come out of University with their first child, but there you go.

Having gone through my first TS4 University experience now, I do plan to change things up for Round 21-but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I've also determined that living on campus is (much like real life) much more trouble than its' worth-especially at Foxbury. But I think I'll move my student housing to a different lot that the aliens don't know about...

Ok, with that out of the way, let's get back to town and finish up Round 20! Enjoy the refreshments on your way out!