"Sotsugyoushiki no Wasuremono" by SKE48 (2011)

SKE48 song evokes memories of graduation

Love a song in a language that is foreign to yours? Then it pays to read and understand its lyrics in your language. As in the case of this coupling song from AKB48's sister group, I browsed through its English translation in the Stage48 website – and one word makes certain things “coming back to me now”.

CD+DVD Type-A (Regular Edition) cover of Banzai Venus by SKE48 

Graduation Ceremony's Forgotten Things. That's the English title of SKE48's “Sotsugyoushiki no Wasuremono”, a coupling song from their 2011 maxi single “Banzai Venus”. This was released a few years after my graduation, and the keyword “graduation” in the title struck a chord in my memory.

SKE48 ace Jurina Matsui attempts to place a note in someone's shoe locker. Sweet!

Recalling college graduation

Graduation. I forgot to enjoy the days leading to my graduation because I was preoccupied with “helping” my classmates graduate. I was done with my research paper during the previous semester, and I should be relaxing on my last months at school, but no.

Matsui tearfully looks to heaven

I got dragged into my classmates' problem regarding their overdue research paper. Well, mine was overdue too, but I worked on it and completed it weeks before graduation semester. While I spent my summer vacation interpreting and encoding data, my classmates were enjoying theirs, going to places and hanging out with friends. Unfair!

Matsui and company dance to the music

I got dragged because the research instructor told me to help them because if they don't graduate, I don't graduate too. More salt into my wounds as some classmates even “blackmailed” me. I was at a disadvantage, but I don't want trouble. They should be thankful that The Purge movies were not in theaters that time. I could have brought them to meet their Creator.

Friends share a smile

Graduation. Other than that research paper matter, I was preoccupied with wooing a classmate, who didn't graduate that semester. I even helped her research paper group just to get close to her, but to no avail. Five semesters of spurned love, and I can't move forward post-graduation with an emotional baggage, so I decided to stop pursuing. Decision hour was just less than two weeks before graduation day.

Rushing to play tennis

Graduation. I failed to have a graduation portrait taken. I don't have the money.

The pain of recalling due to just one word in a title of a pop song. "Sotsugyoushiki no Wasuremono" is my current LSS. I listen to it with the hope that my counterpart in an alternate reality is enjoying or had enjoyed his/her last days at college. I listen to the hope that I can pierce my classmates' shins with a pitch fork even just in my dreams.

I listen to this song with the hope that I can date SKE48's ace Jurina Matsui one day.

Meeting of friends after school