I’ll be among the many to admit I rarely check my student email account.

I don’t bother because I rarely get anything worth reading: Student Health 101, Blackboard announcements I see when I log in to Blackboard and endless English major scholarship information or essay writing contests.

What I really want to see flooding my inbox — which I never do — is information about graduation, which takes place in, uh, just more than two weeks from now.

As if it’s any surprise, NIU has proven to be astonishingly terrible at getting that information to seniors.

I caught the commencement R.S.V.P. form by chance just last week, after it had been available for many weeks. I happened to run into a friend at Founders Memorial Library who told me about confirming.

Yes, I would like to attend my own graduation ceremony. Thanks for asking.

The last time I had any idea what to do for graduation was three months ago when I applied for it.

Since then, I’ve heard nothing about it. Had I decided I was too cool for the library that fateful day, I might have missed the chance to reserve my own attendance at my own graduation. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if some students did miss that deadline.

I saw countless Facebook posts on the day of the R.S.V.P deadline warning fellow seniors to fill out the form by 5 p.m. So, maybe I’m not entirely oblivious to NIU’s efforts to help me make it to my graduation. But even if I was, I certainly wasn’t alone.

I guess it might be NIU’s secret plan to keep me — and my money — here just a little longer. Why else would it have been such a hassle?

But now that I figured that out, I can finally tell my mom to stop nagging me about when and where I pick up my cap and gown.

Wait, when do we get those again?