Graduation: Moment of Glory

6th July 2007

"Are you here for the afternoon ceremony?" The middle-aged man at the counter asked as I walked through the gates of the UCC carrying my robe in its cover. I gave a firm nod and a resounding "yes, I am," before panic ensued and all hell broke loose.

"You'd better hurry, the ceremony has started." He directed me to the corridor I needed to be at and the group of minders were all flustered when they realised the situation. They ravaged my robe-cover of its brand-new contents, and in a matter of 3 minutes, I was all-dressed ready to graduate.

The national anthem ended as the door opened and I stepped into the hall. Yup, so typical of me to miss my National Anthem. I took my appropriate seating amongst familiar not-so-surprised faces. "You're finally here, how come you're so late?" quipped one of them. Yup, fashionably late as usual; regardless of lectures, tutorials, exams and even graduation; old habits die hard.

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Lining by class along the corridor, I giggled to myself about how I managed to scathe through with a Second Lower. If the start of my Uni life was any indication, it was already amazing that I was even standing among the Honours students in the first place; and yet, I went a step further and managed to save myself from the jaws of 3rd-class twice.

Stepping up to the stage, waiting for my name to be called, I saw my HYP-Professor, looking at me. He smiled and I gave him an acknowledging nod, as memories of the entire HYP-disaster came flooding back into my mind. It was one of those things that gave me a clear indication that I wasn't meant for academia. True, I squeezed 1-year's work into a month, but I can safely say it was a heart-and-soul 1 month, and yet, it wasn't nearly enough. But all that faded into insignificance at this very moment, for I knew that it wasn't going to matter much in the greater plan of my life, anyway...... I smiled back.

Academia is a weird thing, it seems that higher you climb on the academic scale, the more ridiculous you're meant to look. I thought that the idea of dressing like a dick in an over-sized gown with a severely impractical square hat after 3/4 years of studying was quite stupid in itself. But I when I gazed upon the professors in their even more outrageous outfits with accompanying flat and deflated headgear, I suddenly didn't feel so stupid anymore.

My name was called as I approached the President of NUS (which I had no idea what he looked like prior to this moment) to wrestle my academic rights from his aged-hands. 4 years of effort, or lack thereof, summarized into one moment, one sheet of paper. 4-years of skirting the system, minimalist effort, parasitic teamwork and vampiric study-months, bore fruit in the form of a modern day scroll; a passport that is said to take you places in the working world. Sure, I STILL don't believe that most of what was learnt is going to be anywhere close to relevant for my working life, but reality would have it no other way that I needed that sheet of paper to open the necessary doors.

Intensely Sizing up the President

Prim and Proper

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The end of the ceremony took all of us by storm, as the MC announced its closure after a good 45-minutes, a vast contrast to the 3-hour ceremony that I mentally braced my poor family members for, as we were given our own ceremony for being stupid enough to study an extra year; it was the least they could do if you ask me. Celebratory music played as gaudy balloons and confetti fell from the ceiling to mark the end of the ceremony. Yet, alpha and omega, that was when the REAL celebration started.

The Graduate

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Naturally, the first people I wanted to see as an official graduate were members of my dysfunctional family. After all, Father paid the bills, Mother did the motivational nagging, and Assclown constantly reminded me that being in the army sucked more than taking exams. It was only fitting that I let them relish the pride of bathing in the glory of a graduate first, and naturally immortalizing the pride of the moment.

Family Portrait: First-Class Honour of Basking in the Presence of the Second-Class Graduate

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Deserving special thanks as well is Christy, my soul-mate and confidante for the last 5 years. As penance for putting her through my incessant bitching about school life and work, she was basked with the honour of goofing off with The Graduate.

Too Cool for School; but apparently not for Cliches

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The surprise of the day came in the form of a semi-distant, semi-pleasant memory. While I emotionally-muscled my way to drop by her graduation a year before, to give her a photo that probably would have meant more to her than it did to me then; its ironic how the Fates play a role-reversal, and it was a rather pleasant surprise, I must say (even though she was here for Ryan's sake more so than mine, but well, whatever works I guess).

The Bear looks AMAZINGLY recycled

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"Where were you? We were looking for you and called you and you didn't answer," nagged Sujun, as I ran into the entire gang lying in wait for full attendance for our brief moment in glory. People say that there is comfort in company, and as far as company is concerned, there was no better company to graduate with. All the countless memories, putting up with some of the most boring old men this side of the world lecturing about stupid things that are probably irrelevant in the real-world; the late evenings, weekends and overnights in the lab just to make last minute deadlines.... Yup, agonizing moments definitely, and boy was I glad that had the best form of comfort alongside.

Jason (my parasitic-buddy and carrier of my dead-ass-weight in so many programming modules), Siwei, Kimsheng (the gay-buddies I saw too often), Ling Xiang, Sujun, Alvin, Wilbert, Xin Wei, Zhen Feng, Andre and yes, Bob; one way or another, each of them were drops of colour on the slate of my colourful varsity-life; and hopefully they'll continue to add their individual hues to my life from here on out.

Prior to heading off for a well-deserved graduation dinner, we braced ourselves, took deep breathes and upon a timely cue, threw our symbolic hats; representing our academic ascension and sealing our Moment of Glory in time.

Moment of Glory

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As a finishing touch to the entire ceremony, I decided to take shots with me, myself, my ego and I (which makes for a nice family portrait of 4, by the way), and I just couldn't help adding a personal touch of my usual dark flavour to such a pompous ceremony. Considering that I personally don't pay very much respect to academia, my form of "personalization" here was probably more like a desecration, to say the least.

"Hey, I help you take a solo shot of you throwing the hat," barked the ever commanding Princess Christy, prior to leaving for the Merchant Court . But she had a point, it made sense to immortalize this moment in time and take one-for-the-road.

I closed my eyes, knowing that the throwing of the squarish-crown would signify the end of my academic journey.... memories of the life in the last 4-years rushed through my mind; no more vampiric study months, no more (not so much at least) overnight gaming, no more lab-project meetings, no more 3-day weeks, no more 3-month long vacations, no more orientation camps, no more 4-4-10 sleep cycles, no more Uni-chics, no more classes with the company.... in short, no more leading the carefree life of the student.

Things were going to be very different from this moment on, and as much as I was unsure of the impending uncertainties that awaited me in the next phase of life; what I was sure of was that I had relished almost every moment that had strung me along to this point in time. I took a deep and satisfying breath, knowing that I had fulfilled my academic destiny, looked towards the heavens, and...........

One for the Road