Graduation

It was a journey that started 3 years ago, and it has finally come to a completion. It feels almost as if I’ve just started my first day of law school at Inti. And now, fast forward time, I’m donning the graduate robes in Leeds. Graduation is definitely worth it when you get a first..lol.

My moment will only be in the afternoon, so the morning is reserved for grocery shopping at Morrisons. Besides, I also wanna show Mama what I have been feeding on for the past year. The ceremony is slated to be at 1.30pm but we have to be there way earlier to collect our graduation gowns and also handle administrative matters such as registration. While in town, I took the opportunity to get a couple of black socks and formal shirts from Primark. My bulky suit which I brought all the way from Malaysia has finally got the chance to prove its worth. After suiting up in the house, it was time to head out to uni.

The first place to go to was the Arnold Ziff building where I had to confirm my attendance and collect the tickets. Since Mama is the only one here, I had an extra ticket given to WY so that her two siblings and mother can be there in the graduating hall. Since we share the same surnames anyways, it would look like the same China family village affair..lol. As I was coming out after collecting the tickets, I bumped onto Jerrine and her mother – the first of my law classmates that I see after the long break. I proceeded on to the opposite building to settle paperwork for the official photography session. I lost track where I had placed the receipt, so I had to go through the hassle of filling up the form again. After that, I went to another room to collect and wear my graduation gown. The renting price for the gown comes is actually a whopping price of £42. Gosh, I can’t believe that I have to pay to graduate. It’s only renting! I guess the company that is handling all these graduation gowns are earning lots of moolahh. The people stationed inside the room to help the students to put on their gown were very quick in handling their jobs. It’s easier to put on the gown for boys and I got mine done within less than 5 minutes. It seems that Leeds University’s graduation tradition do not come with the graduation hat. I’m told that without hat looks more professional, and also in line with the Oxbridge tradition. With everything settled, I made my way to the Great Hall. I’m one of the early birds there so I started snapping a few photos of myself first while waiting for the others. Soon, many others arrive too and when the time came for us to enter, I was naturally feeling very excited. Graduates and their parents are divided as graduates enter through a different door and both groups sit in different areas too. I had a small bungle when I handed what was supposed to be my seating ticket to Mama. I only realised the mistake when the attendant at the door asked for my ticket. I ended up needing to backtrack before Mama ends up in another section. Whew!

A couple of weeks before, I had been checking out last year’s graduation service to see what they do during the graduation ceremony. I see that they do not have rehearsals for even for these kinds of major events in Britain. If this is Singapore, there will be a couple of kiasu sessions to ensure that the graduates don’t ‘embarrass’ themselves on stage. So, in Britain, it’s just DIY and learning through observation. Anyways, at my row, I have 2 other Lee ladies in my row, WY and Serena.

The graduation procession starts off with the hall organ being played and the entrance of the law professors. They took their seats on the stage, each of them wearing robes of the university in which they had gained their pHD or Masters from. It’s funny to see them on stage, and I’m wondering whether they will feel bored sitting there for an entire hour being scrutinised by the crowd. After everyone had settled down, the emcee comes forward to introduce the presenter, a senior staff of the university. There’s the opening address and then comes the presentation ceremony for the graduates starting alphabetically. It was almost around 15 minutes before it was my row’s turn. As I got up to walk towards the aisle, my heart started skipping faster. The moment is here! Lol, I can imagine the presenter’s raised eyebrow at the presentation of two consecutive first-class awards to two international students sharing the same surname(since WY is in front of me..haha). So after WY walked off, I took a slow walk up the stairs, took a bow and gave a wide grin at the camera as I receive my graduation certificate. The presenter had a look at my cert and congratulated me, so I had slightly longer airtime appearance on the uni’s official graduation video because of that..haha. As I walked down the stairs, a sense of elation came over: I’ve done it! Woohoo..primary objective accomplished! :)

It was another 15 minutes before all the names are called. At the closing of the ceremony, the pipe organ is played again where the professors will depart first followed by the rest of the graduates, row by row. Outside of the Great Hall were massive gatherings of friends and family of the graduates. It’s also time for photo taking! Some of the peeps from LCCC and our Malaysian bunch came over to congratulate us. Ahhh, halfway taking photos, I was handed a bouquet of graduation flowers, courtesy of my Malaysian gang in Leeds. According to them, it’s chosen carefully to ensure that they are ‘manly’ colours. Hilarious! And then we proceeded on to Parkinson’s building to take photos with the grand front building. I also went inside the building to have a few photos taken with the Brotherton library. There was also this giant mural with the words ‘Stanley and Audrey Burton’ gallery which I had always wanted to have a photo with since entering. There was not much time left as I need to rush back to Michael Sadler building to settle and take the official graduate portrait. Ahhh, of course, to ensure that it looks strikingly and obviously a graduate photo, the photo studio had graciously lent every graduate the graduation hat to pose with. The robe has a fixed time period for it to be returned, so I had to immediately head to the next door robing room to return the rented goods. That wasn’t the last of things to be done of the day as I heard that there is gonna be a reception for graduates at the law school. It would also be a good opportunity to meet with some of the lecturers and have some photos taken. While I was on the way in, I bumped onto Ian, a fellow team-member of the law school’s newsletter so I had one taken with him too. Inside the law school, there was free flow champagne for the guests. Inside, I bumped onto my jurisprudence lecturer and I was quite surprised that she recognised me from class! Haha..this is because jurisprudence class is really huge with hundreds of students so it’s not easy to pick out students. I’ve also met a couple more of the school of law staff and had a quick chat with them. It was almost 6pm when we reached back in the house. We had a short rest and I changed into T-shirt and jeans before coming out for dinner. I brought Mama to Brown’s since that was the only place I can think of that provides good food at quite a reasonable price. At the same time, it’s not too noisy too and has a nice ambience to it. I ordered a steak while Mama went with pasta. It’s always great to celebrate times like this with family and I’m glad that I can share this special occasion with Mama. Afterall, this first class degree also belongs to her and without her hardwork and sacrifices, this would not have been possible.

Hmmmm..the final word on graduation: to some extent, I felt vindicated in that I’ve proven how wrong my detractors were from the old days of the southern island. The years of being sidelined and being regarded as ‘not good’ enough for that system – today had just proven how flawed the southern system is in measuring the amount of potential that I have. If I had stayed on at the island, I’ll never be given the chance to study law merely because I did not achieve perfect As for my A Levels or are part of the elite bandwagon from elite schools. I chuckled. The same joker who failed all of his Add maths exams, scored F9s in mid-year and was hopeless in his Economics paper achieved what many in that southern Island could only dream of. I guess I had the last laugh in the end. What’s left is a matter of getting through the last hurdle by passing the qualifying exams and being part of the profession to silence the critics once and for all. As of now, I’ll savour my moment and thank God for His grace in allowing me to graduate well.