well...it went by in a blur actually.
woke up feeling like i slept naught a minute. yet, i had to get prepared for the ceremony. rushed through my breakfast, rushed through getting prepped, rushed getting on dad's car. and halfway to the venue, it hit me that i forgot my phone. =.=
oh well, at least i remembered my parents' tickets, my robe, the mortar and the sash. the most important stuff.
reached and immediately looked for the registration counter, got me name card, got meself robed up, and then went searching for me friends frantically coz i didn't have me damned phone with me. bumped into BPeng and took a pic with her ^^ then met up with Kath, KC and Melissa, then got meself robed up in the robing room again juz to make sure i got it right, then lost Kath and KC, met up with mom and dad to give them their tickets, then went looking for friends again and finally saw KK and YY. and then KK's mom helped me prettify my robe again. (thanks auntie, it was really nice ^^) and then me and YY got readied up and went down to the ballroom to get to our seats coz it was time.
found my seat and realized my neighbour is Ai Rene, and her neighbour is Edward. my other neighbour is a senior, a very pretty gal. ceremony started and then i sang the national anthem for the first time in... what? 5 years? missed the first syllable, me and a huge bunch of us H.U.C. graduands, which is pretty embarrassing really.
don't really remember president's speech. sorry, not very memorable. but the 85-year-young guest of honour's speech was interesting. i remembered myself mentally criticising her for how she presented some of her points but overall (especially since things are pretty sensitive nowadays..but i applaud her for saying some things she said), it was humorous enough to overlook them.
i don't remember what came next but don't think it's really that interesting and then it's our time to "grace" the stage. but it was a long wait coz us psych graduates were the last to go. me and ai rene and edward kept keeping tabs, and ai rene kept saying she's hungry. lol.
anyways, it finally came my turn. got up the stage, passed my name card, doffed when my name was announced (don't think i did it prettily), shook president's hand and smiled, and answered his "which company" with a short "K!w@n!s".
then, walked towards Dr. Goh, shook his hands and said "thank you" to his "congratulations". and then he asked me what i'm doing now, which of course is "teaching down syndrome children". to which he said something along the lines of: "oh, good. that's wonderful" and then we posed and smiled for the camera. and he asked again: 'in KL?" I said: "yes. K!w@n!s" and then we smiled at each other and i walked off the stage.
=)
walked the planned route back to my seat, which is a long one, while trying to locate my parents which i couldn't, and then got stopped by the cameraman to take a pic with ai rene and edward. and then went back to our seats again and clapped our hands all the way till the last of us received her folder. us bpsych grads are a bunch of enthusiastic people compared to other grads. really. listen to the applause and you'll notice.
then the president interrupted the proceedings with a little side speech, announcing how many of us were in which company, how many of us were still "making up their minds", information which he gathered through his handshakes and poses with all of us grads. really. is that necessary? i applaud the guy/gal who directly answered: "i'm unemployed, do you want to hire me?" what guts you have there.
then came elaine's speech as this year's valedictorian. nice speech but i expected a more inspiring and outstanding one. guess i expected too much eh?
and then it ends, after presenting a gift to the guest of honour and the recession of the academics on stage. and we had to wait for our group photo session. which was a bit chaotic. and after that, we went out for our own photo-taking session and searching for our family members and friends. talked a bit with Ms JL, told her a bit about what i'm doing and then took a pic with her ^^ she's as nice as ever.
it was a blur really, looking for familiar faces, catching up with them to take pics. KB came in a pretty dress =) thank you so much for the polaroid ^^ bumped into MeiLing who i haven't seen for years. talked for a bit but forgot to take pics. told u i was blur. took some more pics again with KC and Kath and KB, and then me parents, then SMun, then WuiKien and i think that's it. didn't manage to take a lot with other friends (like YY, KK, Silvia, SOoi, MYong, Melissa, Queenie, SLeng, PFung, etc.), couldn't find them and i didn't have my dang phone with me, and it was really kelam kabut coz there were so many people over there and it was difficult to find them; plus, i was keeping me parents waiting.
returned me robe and saw CWei (didn't take a pic with her as well =.=), which she said i looked different without the glasses and changed hairstyle, and got thinner (hmm...i'm getting a lot of this comment lately..which is really weird, but i do think i shrunk a bit). and then collected the cheque and that's it.
******
to be honest, i don't feel the significance in this ceremony as i expected. thought it'd be....different. like the significance of achieving something great in my life. well, i guess this doesn't really mean something great to me. although i'm pretty proud of my credentials and education and achievements.
maybe because i'm already in the workforce, that this ceremony doesn't signify that point of transition. it happened long ago when i began actively pursuing my goal. maybe because i haven't earned that masters of my chosen field, that i don't feel the significance of all this. i'm not sure.
i'm not saying that my three years in degree means nothing to me. it means a lot. a lot. just that this ceremony doesn't represent my degree experience.
what then represents the experience?
the memories, the happy and stressful times, the struggles, the sense of achievement, the people, and the knowledge and the confidence i've gained throughout all these years.
a ceremony is a ceremony. it could mean the world to someone. but this particular one, didn't have that significance for me. is that sad or what?
p.s. i wonder how my photos turned out (on stage ones). hope i don't look too blur. and i had a lil trouble walking on my pumps which was a lil loose, even after i inserted the heel gels =.= blame me wet feet, which doesn't help with friction =.=""
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