Graduation: The Day

I have officially graduated from my Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering after four good years in university and that summed up to 20 years of formal education. Well, that was actually more than two months back (261111) :). I couldn’t exactly recall vividly what I did on the eve, except for church service in the evening and our customary supper whenever we are out at night apart from ironing and packing; to which I attributed as the cause where I have to axed off my plan to put on the eye mask and woke up rather late the following day. Thus, I have to pack all my necessities from hair brush to facial cream and whatnots into the car. Unfortunately I have to give my hair-dryer a miss and left the house with wet hair and towel draped around my shoulder.

I was still deep in slumber the moment the boss called me up when he was at the departure hall, informing that he missed the plane :P. I wasn’t too surprised although I have to admit that I was praying at the same time that it was not true :P Oh well, another typical banter from him :P I quickly jumped off from the comfy of my bed and apparently the house was all quiet that morning. My parents and brother were out, and my sister had left way earlier as she was among the violinist involved for the graduation ceremony’s orchestral team. I was literally left out and gotten myself ready in a jiffy. Not long after that, my parents and brother came back, with a dozen of beautiful bouquet of fresh pink roses.

We left the house nearing to 0900hr and headed to the airport to pick up the boss, who will be spending a good 3 days with us in conjunction of my day :) We were late by about half an hour as the plane had landed 15 minutes before we left the house. To my surprise, the boss flew over another bouquet of a dozen of nicely wrapped roses of different pink shades. We headed to one of our favorite breakfast spot in Inanam for their ngau chap thereafter. We were lucky this round as the owner of the stall was around, unlike our recent two trips in the same month where both gave us unpleasant experience when the stall were left out to be attended by his employees. Service was inefficient, not to mention slow and there was once our orders were totally forgotten despite only a few tables were occupied. This round, we had no complains :).

Then, we headed to the uni right after breakfast, and it was 11-ish the moment we reached. Along the way from the main entrance was heavily congested and every nook within the radius of the hall were swarmed with people. We can imagine how crowded and wet the washrooms would be inside the hall as well as school buildings within walking distance from the hall. Thus we decided to go a little further to get ourselves changed at the School of Arts. We had all the washrooms for ourselves and debuted with our outdoor photography by the murals done by the art students :)

Since there were still some time before a quarter past 1300hr, which was the time we were asked to gather in front of the main entrance of the hall. Thus, dad suggested that we go for more outdoor shooting which we had initially planned to do after the ceremony, lest causing us all wet and sweaty prior getting into the frigid hall. It was a brilliant suggestion indeed, as post-ceremony photography can be saved for my course mates and friends. We spent slightly more than an hour for some light photography around the lecture halls and it’s surrounding overlooking the sea.  

When it was almost 1300hr, we quickly get back into the car and off to the Chancellor Hall. Thanks to the VIP entrance pass mom was provided, we managed to get a so-called VIP parking, which were just a few feet away from the hall’s main entrance. This has definitely saved us a lot from walking for a far distance, very much everyone’s relief under the fantastic weather, clear sky and scorching sun :). The queue was rather long by the time I got there. Frantically searching high and low for my friends, I stumbled upon a registration counter meant for fellow lecturers. Out of curiosity, I took the opportunity to ask if students were required to register too. The guy standing by the security barrier rudely brushed me off in disdain stating that the counters were only meant for teachers (in his word referring to lecturers). Oh well.

Not long after, I caught up with some of my friends and thereafter asked my family and the boss to get in the hall to have their seat. We spent quite some time to adjust our hood before I realized that I have forgotten my mortar board! I called my mom, who was the one holding my bag and she didn’t pick up the phone. The same goes to my papa and my brother, my calls went unnoticed. Then, I resorted to call the boss. Phew, luckily the boss picked up the phone and informed my parents about it :P Not long after, my dad and brother came out and we met at the stretch of red carpet we have agreed upon earlier shall my sheer blur-ness strikes. Well, papa knows this syndrome of mine too well and before they get into the hall, we promised to meet up at our pre-definite meeting point shall the prawn head me forget or miss out anything. I was on the verge of getting shoo-ed away by the officer in charge :P.

While we were queuing outside the entrance, both Kuo and I were deeply touched when we see Pau, our senior who has been a great mentor made his appearance by the bushes. Lol. It was a coincidence as the compound was all guarded with securities and he was not allowed to interfere the graduatues. Thus, we literally met up with him discreetly. He quickly handed both of us a stalk of flower with a baby teddy on it. Upon thanking him, we were caught red-handed and reprimanded to leave the gift right away, lest we will not be allowed to enter the hall. Left with no choice, we returned it to Pau who was planning to leave right after but instead, we made him to come back after the ceremony.  

The event proper commenced at about 1345hr with the graduates marching in by school and course program order, followed by fellow lecturers, professors and subsequently the upper echelons, all smartly dressed in their robes and mortar boards.  This was followed by the national anthem, proclamation of the ceremony, other formalities and a brief speech by Vice-Chancellor cum our state’s Chief Minister respectively. Followed on was the most anticipated moment, where the Bachelor Degrees were conferred to each graduate (a padded certificate folder embedded with golden logo and wordings sans certificate). It was almost 1500hr when I received my 'scroll' and the conferral process itself took about 3 hours or so. Everyone were apparently restless and couldn't help but eyeing at the handphone's clock from time to time :P. 

This was followed then with a speech by the graduate representative. Graduates were basically advised to perform well to bring glory to the university and society generally and reminded to repay all the good deeds our parents had showered upon us. With the state anthem and uni’s song, the ceremony for the day has finally come to the end at around 1700hr. More photography session with friends and course mates after that and we finally decided to leave when it strikes 1800hr and advanced for a dinner fix at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Everyone was arduous by the end of the day but still hitting the sack past midnight. Besides, I was still able to make two trays of little darlings to be devoured the following night :).