This weekend, after 7 long years of on and off studying, illness, and deferring, I graduated from University with an Advanced Diploma of Business. I actually finished the final subject last year, and had to wait until Saturday for my certificate. So it was with a great sense of acheivement that I headed up to Toowoomba for the ceremony.
Since my wonderful partner was feeling rather ill, we decided to make it a day trip only. After a two-hour drive, we stopped for lunch and went to pick up a friend who was coming along to witness the pomp and ceremony. Although it wasn't due to start until 2.30, I had to pick up the academic dress at 1.oo so that I had time to take photos and be directed to my allocated seat. In reality, I actually spent this hour and a half bouncing around in the wind and being the subject of laughter by my partner, friend and her four-year old, mainly because I looked like something out of a Harry Potter film (albeit with a flatter hat). I declared several times that I was actually 'Super Graduate - flying faster than a speeding bullet', but gave this up once I checked out the photos on the digital camera. My partner gently reminded me that taking five years to complete what should have been a 1 1/2 year course didn't exactly lend itself to a speeding bullet reputation.
Since I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter, and not so much of superman, I changed to ill-timed 'Wingardium Levi-o-sa's' instead. Probably the graduates around me were wondering why an idiot like me ended up at a serious occasion for the celebration of academic acheivements, but it was my long-awaited and hard-worked for graduation too, and I was determined to enjoy it. To be honest, I had almost said to hell with it, just post me the thing, but I figured five years of study was worth having a hall full of people cheer for me. The $66 i paid to hire academic dress was nothing compared to the school fees, so I went for it. My mum was excited about it anyway. She works at the uni (in food services) and had been proudly telling anyone who would listen that she would need that day off because her daughter was graduating, ever since I told her I'd passed my final subject. I'm the first person (apart from my aunt who's a few years older) to attend university, and the first to actually complete something, so I wasn't about to deny her the opportunity to have photos of me all dressed up displayed on her mantlepiece. I did falter a bit at the prospect of a 2-hour ceremony with 400 graduates to get through.
I was the second-last person in the entire ceremony, and had only one other graduate (the last) seated in my row, so it was lucky for us that we both had a wicked sense of humour. An Advanced Diploma is the lowest award a university hands out, so we had to sit through the doctorates, masters, and bachelors before it was our turn. Sometimes we had to make up our own jokes, and other times the graduate names provided our entertainment (who calls their kid Wai Ping Cok?) Thankfully, these are all listed in the program for me to fondly reminisce about in years to come. Although some of the other graduates looked at us like the naughty kids in class who just scraped through, I doubt we were the worst of the day. One example that comes immediately to mind is a lady two rows behind us, who at the first outburst of clapping for a graduate, loudly proclaimed "Is that because they know that person, or just because it's the first Aussie name they've called out so far?" To their credit, the row of Asian students in front of us stared stoicly ahead, and I applaud them. I couldn't help letting out a burst of laughter, forever cementing my place as the naughty student.
Finally my turn came, I walked across the stage, had my photo taken with some important academic who handed out the diplomas, and waved to my family as they cheered me off the stage. I proudly sang the national anthem when it played, and ate some of the afternoon tea goodies (profiteroles and cake, yum). When it was all over, I came home officially a graduate, proud of my monogrammed and embossed piece of paper. So how did it feel?
Quite frankly, like I'd just paid $14,066 for a piece of paper. For me, the real sense of acheivement came when I got my grades six months ago. My reward wasn't being dressed up like a Harry Potter extra, parading across a stage and being patted on the back. It was knowing that finally, I had grown up enough and worked hard enough to deserve to be proud of myself. To all of my family, friends, and especially my partner who supported me through no matter what, the ceremony was for you!
Since my wonderful partner was feeling rather ill, we decided to make it a day trip only. After a two-hour drive, we stopped for lunch and went to pick up a friend who was coming along to witness the pomp and ceremony. Although it wasn't due to start until 2.30, I had to pick up the academic dress at 1.oo so that I had time to take photos and be directed to my allocated seat. In reality, I actually spent this hour and a half bouncing around in the wind and being the subject of laughter by my partner, friend and her four-year old, mainly because I looked like something out of a Harry Potter film (albeit with a flatter hat). I declared several times that I was actually 'Super Graduate - flying faster than a speeding bullet', but gave this up once I checked out the photos on the digital camera. My partner gently reminded me that taking five years to complete what should have been a 1 1/2 year course didn't exactly lend itself to a speeding bullet reputation.
Since I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter, and not so much of superman, I changed to ill-timed 'Wingardium Levi-o-sa's' instead. Probably the graduates around me were wondering why an idiot like me ended up at a serious occasion for the celebration of academic acheivements, but it was my long-awaited and hard-worked for graduation too, and I was determined to enjoy it. To be honest, I had almost said to hell with it, just post me the thing, but I figured five years of study was worth having a hall full of people cheer for me. The $66 i paid to hire academic dress was nothing compared to the school fees, so I went for it. My mum was excited about it anyway. She works at the uni (in food services) and had been proudly telling anyone who would listen that she would need that day off because her daughter was graduating, ever since I told her I'd passed my final subject. I'm the first person (apart from my aunt who's a few years older) to attend university, and the first to actually complete something, so I wasn't about to deny her the opportunity to have photos of me all dressed up displayed on her mantlepiece. I did falter a bit at the prospect of a 2-hour ceremony with 400 graduates to get through.
I was the second-last person in the entire ceremony, and had only one other graduate (the last) seated in my row, so it was lucky for us that we both had a wicked sense of humour. An Advanced Diploma is the lowest award a university hands out, so we had to sit through the doctorates, masters, and bachelors before it was our turn. Sometimes we had to make up our own jokes, and other times the graduate names provided our entertainment (who calls their kid Wai Ping Cok?) Thankfully, these are all listed in the program for me to fondly reminisce about in years to come. Although some of the other graduates looked at us like the naughty kids in class who just scraped through, I doubt we were the worst of the day. One example that comes immediately to mind is a lady two rows behind us, who at the first outburst of clapping for a graduate, loudly proclaimed "Is that because they know that person, or just because it's the first Aussie name they've called out so far?" To their credit, the row of Asian students in front of us stared stoicly ahead, and I applaud them. I couldn't help letting out a burst of laughter, forever cementing my place as the naughty student.
Finally my turn came, I walked across the stage, had my photo taken with some important academic who handed out the diplomas, and waved to my family as they cheered me off the stage. I proudly sang the national anthem when it played, and ate some of the afternoon tea goodies (profiteroles and cake, yum). When it was all over, I came home officially a graduate, proud of my monogrammed and embossed piece of paper. So how did it feel?
Quite frankly, like I'd just paid $14,066 for a piece of paper. For me, the real sense of acheivement came when I got my grades six months ago. My reward wasn't being dressed up like a Harry Potter extra, parading across a stage and being patted on the back. It was knowing that finally, I had grown up enough and worked hard enough to deserve to be proud of myself. To all of my family, friends, and especially my partner who supported me through no matter what, the ceremony was for you!
Super Graduate!
0 comments:
Post a Comment