u/Realistic-Major-6020

Back in my senior year of high school in the late 2010s, our graduation ceremony was held at the local football field. For some reason, everyone in our small city loved going to graduation, even if they barely knew the students. To avoid overcrowding and traffic, the school decided to use a ticket system so only close family and friends could attend.

I think each student was originally given five tickets, with the option to request a few extra if they had a bigger family. I remember all of us being in the gym while the administrators explained how graduation would work. After the meeting ended, everyone got in line to pick up their tickets.

I waited in line for about an hour and 45 minutes because the staff organizing the event were completely shocked after one girl requested 70 tickets. It threw everything into chaos. They ended up scrambling for a clipboard and started writing down how many tickets every student wanted. I remember telling them I only needed four tickets, even though I actually needed seven.

Thankfully, later on the school sent out emails and voicemails saying they were no longer doing the ticket system that year. Eventually they must have figured something out, but I still can’t believe that whole situation actually happened.

Graduation season is always chaotic, but nothing topped what happened the year I graduated in the late 2010s. That was the year the school decided to start using tickets because random strangers kept showing up to graduation.

Our local football stadium was always packed for graduation, so the school introduced tickets to control the crowd. Each graduate would get four tickets.

Simple enough — until it wasn’t.

A few days before graduation, seniors gathered to pick up tickets before our field trip. Everything seemed normal at first.

Then the line stopped moving.

Minutes turned into nearly two hours while teachers and administrators whispered and panicked. Eventually, word spread through the crowd:

One girl was demanding 72 tickets.

The entire system basically collapsed on the spot.

By the next day, the school gave up completely and announced that tickets were no longer required after all.

The plan lasted less than 24 hours.

Years later, I heard they finally figured out a ticket system that works. But my graduating class?

Yeah… we broke it.