Graduation Day

Finally this day arrives. The morning starts out gloomy and cold I was already feeling disappointed about the weather. I already had low-ish expectations about how the day would pan out and I already knew that the dream of wearing a mortar board would not be achieved.

Alhamdulillah, by midday the sun did shine brightly without it being too hot.

Because of convenience we all rode the tram to my university. But I didn't realise walking all the way to the middle of the campus to the union house was that long a walk. It's been a long time I was on campus! I was sweating by the time I arrived at the place to collect the regalia!! Most of my friends were already in their full regalia and taking photos and I was still walking to get to the building! And the line to get the gown was so looooong.

Our style of regalia follows that of Oxford University. It is only a gown with a hood lined with faculty colours. No hat. Our colour was cardinal red. (Didn't know what this meant until after I watched the movie Angels & Demons and saw all the cardinals wearing a kind of red - it's that colour!)

Finally when I got my full attire on and my tickets to the hall I took a breath of relief. But then I looked at my watch and realised I only had 1 hour to snap photos before having to enter the hall! So photos away! There wasn't much space as 300 odd students and their families were vying for the nice spots on campus with limited time.




I entered The Wilson Hall at 3pm and got seated. We were seated according to our turn on the stage. The stage backdrop was awful though. A painting of a naked man reaching for the sun. Had to look at that butt the whole time haha! The wait wasn't too boring. There was a quartet playing classical music and an organist playing the pipe organ.

Then the academic procession began with the choir singing an old graduation hymn in Latin. Then came all the speeches and formalities.

I was quite nervous to receive my degree. I was afraid I'd trip on my hem or slip down the stairs. Or walk in a very unladylike fashion. Mak took a video and it looked alright hahaha. I already told the officials I wasn't going to shake the Chancellor's hand so that turned out alright. No embarrassing moments.

It was quite enjoyable although extremely exhausting. My friend next to me (Abz) and I enjoyed ourselves laughing when the Dean pronounced other people's names. I was wondering if he had practiced pronouncing the exotic, tongue twisting names of us foreigners before hand. He did have some trouble with Malay & Indian names! I'm so glad he did not mispronounce my name. Even so, he had to pause and drink a glass of water after calling out consecutive Malay names!

I received two degrees on this day.

Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery

Bachelor of Medical Science.

Then after the ceremony finished, we only had one hour before having to return the regalia. 1 hour!!! Tak sempat. I didn't even realise my outfit was skewed. It was hard work rallying all the Banting people together for a photo shoot. We agreed on 5.30pm but some people had their own plans and went away and forgot. Some wanted to go quickly to the Grand Buffet Hall for refreshments. Adoi. In the end, we could only take photos with 13 of us (out of 20).

Alhamdulillah, 20 of us started in January 2004 and 20 of us finished together in Dec 2009. No one was left behind. We finished on time and I can't tell you what an astounding relief that is to all of us.

Congratulations to all of us.