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If graduation is the finish line, nearly 7,000 University of Oklahoma students crossed it Friday at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

“I’m very excited," said Misty Glasco, dental hygiene alumna from OU Health Sciences Center. “I’m glad it’s over.”

Graduates convened at the stadium for a commencement ceremony punctuated by pageantry, fanfare and fireworks.

The color guard led by Kiowa Black Legging Society members and bagpipe music provided by the Oklahoma City Highlanders filled the stadium with splendor as the graduates, OU President David L. Boren and honored guests entered.

Energy in the stadium turned contagious and palpable as the graduates filed in, some in flip flops, some in high heels, and most wearing smiles and expressions of pride.

Boren addressed graduates and thanked them for making the university a better place.

“You have begun to live out your dreams already, and you have left your mark on this university,” he said.

Though the evening marked an end to years of study, students expressed mixed emotions about graduating.

Ashley White, journalism alumna, admitted to shedding a few tears as she drove down Lindsey Street during the final weeks of school.

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “I’m really excited to go and work and figure out the rest of my life, but it’s kind of sad, too.”

Some students said they will miss the city of Norman and the friendships they have made there, but for many Sooner fans, football will be the biggest loss.

“I’ll miss game days,” Jacob Ferguson, industrial engineering alumnus, said. “I won’t be able to come back too much.”

Ferguson accepted a manufacture engineering position at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Ill.

For some students, school doesn’t end with graduation.

“I’m going to grad school at the University of Kentucky,” Zachary Calhoun, communication alumnus, said. “It should be fun.”

Whether entering the workforce or graduate school, the students honored in Friday’s ceremony are moving into their future — a future that William S. Cohen, 20th U.S. Secretary of Defense, said would be fraught with challenges for America in his commencement speech to graudates.

“Our economy is sputtering, the dollar is falling, gas prices are rising, bridges are collapsing, competitiveness is declining, the climate is changing and our military strength is being drained by long and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

Despite painting a negative portrait of the country’s current state of affairs, Cohen said his purpose was not to recite a litany of all our sorrows, but to issue a call to action.

“There is hope for our nation because of what this university has given you — education,” he said. “This is a priceless gift, but it’s one that doesn’t come to you without strings.”

Cohen encouraged graduates to demand the truth from political leaders, to restore a sense of civic virtue and pride to their country and to understand the cultures of other nations, not only to comprehend them in all their diversity, but also to join them in the cause of raising standards for good global citizenship.

Cohen concluded his speech by challenging comments made recently by a French foreign minister, who said America had lost its magic.

“We haven’t lost our magic,” Cohen said. “When I look into the faces that I saw this afternoon and this evening, I can see it’s still there. If you were to come to me and say, ‘Bill Cohen, what is it we have in our hands?’ I would say you hold the future of this state, this country and this world. And if you asked, ‘Is it alive or is it dead?’ I would say, ‘Its future is in your hands.’”