Graduation
Finally, at last… my study life is over (er, not quite, I’ll still be studying part-time). I have graduated from university. Today started off early for me. I got up early after a call from my friend asking me what I’d be wearing to the graduation. She must be nervous. I was too. I didn’t sleep well last night so there were dark circles around my eyes. 
The ceremony started at 2:30pm. I arrived at the Great Hall in Parliament House (where it was held) at noon, thinking that it would take me a while to get through the lines at security and picking up the gown. Surprisingly, the queues weren’t so bad. I guess it was because I got there early (what a nerd!). We got a good parking spot too. ^.^ Having been involved in graduation ceremonies at my previous workplace, I naturally compared the two. (Here I go again, picking on people!) When I entered the Hall, there was no sign anywhere to tell me where I (as a graduand) should go to pick up my ticket and hire gown. I walked around carefully avoided looking suspicious in the Hall, afraid that I might be chucked out by the security (how pathetic… at my own graduation!). I was lucky to find an early bird from my year and asked him for direction. Signage, people! It wouldn’t hurt to put a board in the middle of the hall to tell people where to go.
I couldn’t hire the gown until 12:45pm. The assistant put the smallest sized gown she could find on me and yet it looked enormous on my midget-like body. She put it on and asked me how it was. Er, should I know how it should look without a mirror? That was my first reaction. Then, she immediately gave me a mortar board (fresh from the factory, thank god!) to put on, and asked me “Does it fit?”. At that point, I really gave up on asking her for her advice. I wanted to snob her off but I guess I should be nice on my graduation day. I just said to her to give me a bigger size and then I walked out. Should I really know how a mortar board should sit on my head where I couldn’t see myself and this was my first time wearing the god damn thing?!!! I think they definitely should train their staff to dress us properly like the (can’t say the name of the organisation I used to work at) place I used to work at does. It does make a difference because the stupid gown kept falling off my shoulders. By the way, they don’t use pins. So, the heavy gown just sat on my shoulders and moved freely off my shoulders every 5 minutes. How annoying when you tried to pose for pictures! Freeze, you stupid gown!!!! So, all of us exchanged tips on how to make sure the gown stays on our shoulders and how the mortar board should sit on our heads. Seriously, who had a clue which side the tassle should be before you graduate?! Anyone?! Luckily someone knew from our year. Otherwise we all would look like fools! I didn’t want to complain on such a special day but we all did look like fools walking around asking people how to dress properly. It shouldn’t be so embarrassing.
I finally made it into the hall and parked my bum on the seat I was given. Oh my god! That lady… did she just say “EXCUSE ME!”? I was shocked when she said that abruptly from behind me. It must be the weather (or PMS)! She was so cranky at all of us. She wanted to make sure I was in the right seat. Ok, that was fine but a little smile from you would be nice, lady! And what was with that attitude “EXCUSE ME, CAN I SEE YOUR TICKET?”…? Er, I’m not deaf and I ain’t stupid either. I was about to graduate with a degree and I can read ABC just fine, thank you. Oh my god! I almost yelled at her. I told her my seat was G6. She continued to request to see my ticket with that tone of voice. I repeated myself again and she insisted on seeing the ticket. I almost told her that I ate it cos I was frigging hungry! Obviously after my first answer, I didn’t understand the importance of you seeing the ticket. A little elaboration would avoid this embarrassing moment where two females were about to wrestle for the ticket. O.O I seriously didn’t know how important the ticket was. I literately chucked it on the floor like I never had it. Yep, I did. So, I awkwardly picked up the ticket from the floor in a narrow aisle while avoiding falling flat on my face. I stood up and my mortar board fell off my head. Great! After the lady left, my friend and I just stared at each other. What a loser! That wasn’t the end. She continued to harrass my friend. She said to him, “Don’t go anywhere. If you do, I will cross you off as not here.”, and poor Dan mumbled to himself quietly, “I just wanted to say hi to my parents.”. Hahahahaha… 
a laughter broke out where we all were. How cruel! He just wanted to say “hi” to his parents.
Anyway, the ceremony finally started a little over 2:30pm. Everything went pretty well. Oopss, mispronounced names. Oopss, that name wasn’t her. Oopss, he’s a PhD, not MPhil? Oh dear oh dear… blunters everywhere. Oh well. Nothing is perfect. The funniest thing was the Chancellor’s accent. OK, we shouldn’t laugh at her but we graduated from the University of Canberra, not University of Kambah! ^.^ Everytime she said “Kambah” (meaning Canberra), my friend sitting next to me would laugh! Oh god!!! Somebody please stop her!!!!!!
I actually felt that these 4 years went more quickly than the ceremony. Oh boy, I sat there in that uncomfortable chair, where my naturally grown short legs couldn’t reach the ground, for 3 hours! It felt more like 5 years. Maybe because we were amongst the first to be called, the time seemed to pass real slowly. Anyway, finally the ceremony finished at about 4:30pm. We went to the photography section to get our family photo and portrait taken. I’m looking forward to see how the pictures would turn out. It better look good because I’m not going to do it again. It’s too painful. After that, we went back into the Hall for a reception. I was starving and dying for a glass of water. Oh, by the way, the testamur didn’t come in a tube. It came in this dodgy printed blue folder. When I opened it up, I was like “What is that? My testamur?!”. I was shocked because it was only an A4-size-ish paper. Er… right! FANtastic! Should I be feeling proud when you treated my testamur like a daily office document? Very disappointing, I must add.
So, there it is. My graduation. My friends whom I hadn’t seen since the exhibition just said “hi…” with a monotone of voice to me. Wow, so excited to see me again, huh?! I’m very disappointed in them. Thanks for spending 4 years studying together, dorks! “Whatever” I thought to myself. Luckily I sat with the boys because they were more friendlier to me than the people I called friends. Sigh… so I didn’t stay long. I left at about 5:30pm, we went straight back home and had a simple dinner at home. No celebration for me. We were tired and my friends deserted me. So, f*** ‘em. I’d stay home.
Oh, I have uploaded the pictures taken today (link is below). Some of them are blurry because my grandpa took them with his shaky hands.
