I Have Graduated!

Yes it’s over. It really is. After 15 years of slogging (or rather slacking), I am officially no longer a student. I have finally graduated!

The commencement ceremony was held yesterday night. I was dead beat the whole day from not having enough sleep. Luckily my boss allan was kind enough to let me leave work early. Phew! So I rushed home, got my gown ready, and went down to the university cultural centre with my parents just in time for the ceremony.

The building was nicely decorated with thousands of colourful little lights. When we arrived the place was already teeming with people. In the robing room a nice lady helped me with my gown. I may never get married this lifetime so this gown may just be the most important gown in my life! It had to look right!

Getting the hood (which is tangerine for computer science graduates) to look right on my robe was quite tricky. Moreover the board cap made me look weird!

While waiting for the ceremony to commence, a reflections video was played on the big screen onstage. It included five seconds of my video recorded interview. Woohoo! It was mighty short but at least I appeared! I was worried they would leave me out altogether.

On with the ceremony. Each of us had a barcoded card that was scanned into the computer before we went onstage to collect our scrolls. It determined the order in which we went up. I was more concerned about not tripping over onstage and making a fool of myself in front of everyone. Phew! Nothing of that sort happened!

The guy who presented us with our scrolls (who was he?) seemed quite reluctant to give me mine! I shook his hand and he stared back at me with a blank look for like two seconds before handing me my scroll. What was up with that? He didn’t seem too bright!

And finally it was over. Actually it was over pretty quick. Balloons and golden ribbons rained down on us as the officiator announced the end of the ceremony. Hundreds and thousands of balloons in the colours of the rainbow! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple. Hooray!

At the lobby everyone was taking pictures and attacking the trays of food. The chocolate éclairs were the biggest hit and got polished off very quickly. I spent the next hour taking photos instead. Unfortunately many of the pictures turned out overexposed and looked pretty screwy.

That’s isaac and mayi, from the computing club.

Liquan, who is currently undergoing reservist training, hence explaining the short hair. It took me five seconds to recognise who he was when he called out my name! Anyway he is one of those guys blessed with smooth baby skin that girls would kill for.

When I was still in school, people who are already working kept telling me to “enjoy my school life”. Because once you start working, you would find that school life is a blessing. What a load of bullcrap! I am totally loving work life even though I do feel exhausted most of the time. If I had to choose between work or studies, I would choose work in a heartbeat. Would I ever go back to school? Never!

So here endeth my academic life. The next phase in my life has already started.

I can’t wait!