A resounding end to my educational career... for now
Yesterday was the "BIG" day.
Convocation! What else! And I am part of the centennial class of 2005! Finally, after seeing the banners for commencement for the past three years, it is my turn now! Hahahaha!
So cliched but time really passes so quickly that I am still trying to come to terms with my graduation. Honestly speaking, I have avoided thinking about this day right after the last day of my exams. On that day, Siew Hup congratulated me for having gone through my last exam at NUS. Yeah, I was happy! But I shrugged when I knew this meant the "dreaded event" was coming.
And as the days passed, whenever I thought of the impending Big C (read: CONVOCATION), I still tell myself "Nah! It is still months --> weeks --> (and finally) days (only!!) away." Full blown panic! Hahaha! Now I am wondering why I was so paranoid! All my fears turned out to be unfounded! :D
Anyway, everything only started to sink in when I went back to NUS last Friday to collect my graduation gown. I was travelling on that familiar long and mostly annoying 151 journey. And dare I say it? Despite my incessant complaints, I missed the journey! Sigh! How nostalgic can I get? My blog has been occupied by random posts of nostalgia about NUS. From my last finance quiz to my "depression" at the last IA class of the semester to being a total glutton by even recollecting about the Bizad canteen.
Anyway, back to gown collection day. My countdown to Convo Day started when I landed my hands on the gown. By the way, I think the colour of our Bizad hood is still the nicest.. White, a little silverish even. It has such a classic look and the contrast with the dark blue gown looks really nice!
So, I agreed to meet Siew Hup beforehand at Bizad to take photos to feed my nostalgic appetitie.
The Bizad canteen, what else! And my special request for this photo was that the focus of the picture should not be me. The highlight should be the canteen! I am supposed to be only the "prop" here!
The long stretch of road leading to the conference rooms. I would sometimes be performing my 50 metre (an exaggeration lah!) dash here, specifically for 9 am lessons. Nice right? I mean the view. Newly renovated.. everything is so new and makes it such a stark contrast from the rest of lok kok Bizad!
The lecture theatre. Haven't been there much since Year 3. I do miss big lectures where you can fall asleep more easily without being caught by the lecturer than in a sectional! Too bad the theatre was locked. I would have taken a photo in there!
Nothing would be complete without "showing off" the NUS Business School sign. This photo is a must! Again we are the "props" here.
Then we were off to the UCC. It was bustling with activity! Spotted familiar faces and of course, took more photos! Everyone looked so different!
With Siew Hup and Darrell at the robing room before the ceremony.
With Gregory at the robing room.
Honghui. Also at the robing room.
With Heather and Siew Hup. It was quite hard to spot more familiar faces at the robing room, given that the room was rather dark, and made more so by our dark-coloured gowns. And of course, everyone was in such a gan jiong mood (at least for me) it was better not to disturb them!
And why is my hood positioned so differently from everybody?!! Luckily there were people who helped to arrange our attire just before we went on stage! Phew!
The ceremony started sharply at 3pm. Yay! No delays! The ceremony took shorter than I expected. Everything was simple but grand. There was only a short video showcasing NUS before 3pm. Even the speeches were short and sweet. The Dean did not make a speech either. Before the presentation, the camera was zooming in at the audience at all angles and it did capture some funny scenes. There was a girl who was all slouched in her seat, sleeping really soundly only minutes after the ceremony started. Was she really that tired?
The presentation of degree scrolls started relatively quickly, although it soon became a bore having to sit through the awarding of Doctorates of Business and the different MBAs before it was the BBA - our turn.
Frankly speaking, it was only after the ceremony that I could finally put names to the faces I have seen around Bizad and vice versa, faces to the names I have heard. And to speak the truth, I don't recall seeing most of the faces that went on stage yesterday. This is how cooped up I am within my own circle of friends!
As the rows behind me started to file out for their turn on stage, I got even more nervous. I constantly rubbed mysweaty sticky palm against my gown. All sorts of embarrassing scenarios started playing out in my mind. What if I slipped or tripped? Worse, what if my mortar board fell off? What if I forgot to look into the camera (as instructed by the helpers earlier) before collecting the scroll? Bah! Thankfully, all my worries were unfounded!
Before I was due on stage, as I was beginning to wait for my turn off stage, I reminded myself to listen carefully to how the presenter would call out my name. And of course, my mind went totally blank when I waspushed led on stage. I only knew I had to walk straight --> smile a little --> shake hands --> turn to face the camera --> collect my scroll --> walk down the stage.
Sounds simple enough? Wait till it's your turn! Even such seemingly simple instructions can turn out to be inexplicably complicated ones. It is scary how anxiety can grip anyone!
The valedictory speech followed right after the presentation. The speech was also short and sweet and although the message was rather meaningful, I could only remember the valedictorian saying things like "It was at Bizad that I learnt that project meetings could stretch to 3 am in the morning" and "Open book exams meant that all the answers would not be found in the textbook!" Hahaha.. such words really tug at any student's heartstrings. That it is NUS's 100th birthday or Bizad's 40th birthday this year doesn't really impact me. What I think I remember for a long time would be like what Augustin (the valeditorian) mentioned, the long project meetings, the crazy times spent during orientation, the boredom when faced with long sectionals and lectures, the hours spent slogging over that IT project (Brrr!!) and of course, the friends made.
After the ceremony which ended around 4.10pm, I met up with my parents who were sitting right at the top because they arrived on the dot. Since we were still waiting for my Grandma and sisters to arrive, I went on a photo-takingfrenzy session. It is not a frenzy because my digicam memory died on me for a while! So some photos are still with my friends. Arrggh!!
Siwei and Yayu. It was such a surprise to see them. This was after the ceremony. They were even more excited than me!
Xinjie, another surprise visitor. She was my Macro Econs project group mate. Graduated last year.
Siew Kee.
Zhihao.
Meimei. Haven't seen this girl in ages!
Anson.
Eugene.
Lots more photos, but I think I better stop. This post is getting to be an excessively long one!
Lastly, to all the people who came for the graduation ceremony, and whom I have had the opportunity to take a photo with,
THANKS FOR COMING!!
I would definitely make the effort to attend your ceremony next year!
Convocation! What else! And I am part of the centennial class of 2005! Finally, after seeing the banners for commencement for the past three years, it is my turn now! Hahahaha!
So cliched but time really passes so quickly that I am still trying to come to terms with my graduation. Honestly speaking, I have avoided thinking about this day right after the last day of my exams. On that day, Siew Hup congratulated me for having gone through my last exam at NUS. Yeah, I was happy! But I shrugged when I knew this meant the "dreaded event" was coming.
And as the days passed, whenever I thought of the impending Big C (read: CONVOCATION), I still tell myself "Nah! It is still months --> weeks --> (and finally) days (only!!) away." Full blown panic! Hahaha! Now I am wondering why I was so paranoid! All my fears turned out to be unfounded! :D
Anyway, everything only started to sink in when I went back to NUS last Friday to collect my graduation gown. I was travelling on that familiar long and mostly annoying 151 journey. And dare I say it? Despite my incessant complaints, I missed the journey! Sigh! How nostalgic can I get? My blog has been occupied by random posts of nostalgia about NUS. From my last finance quiz to my "depression" at the last IA class of the semester to being a total glutton by even recollecting about the Bizad canteen.
Anyway, back to gown collection day. My countdown to Convo Day started when I landed my hands on the gown. By the way, I think the colour of our Bizad hood is still the nicest.. White, a little silverish even. It has such a classic look and the contrast with the dark blue gown looks really nice!
So, I agreed to meet Siew Hup beforehand at Bizad to take photos to feed my nostalgic appetitie.
The Bizad canteen, what else! And my special request for this photo was that the focus of the picture should not be me. The highlight should be the canteen! I am supposed to be only the "prop" here!
The long stretch of road leading to the conference rooms. I would sometimes be performing my 50 metre (an exaggeration lah!) dash here, specifically for 9 am lessons. Nice right? I mean the view. Newly renovated.. everything is so new and makes it such a stark contrast from the rest of lok kok Bizad!
The lecture theatre. Haven't been there much since Year 3. I do miss big lectures where you can fall asleep more easily without being caught by the lecturer than in a sectional! Too bad the theatre was locked. I would have taken a photo in there!
Nothing would be complete without "showing off" the NUS Business School sign. This photo is a must! Again we are the "props" here.
Then we were off to the UCC. It was bustling with activity! Spotted familiar faces and of course, took more photos! Everyone looked so different!
With Siew Hup and Darrell at the robing room before the ceremony.
With Gregory at the robing room.
Honghui. Also at the robing room.
With Heather and Siew Hup. It was quite hard to spot more familiar faces at the robing room, given that the room was rather dark, and made more so by our dark-coloured gowns. And of course, everyone was in such a gan jiong mood (at least for me) it was better not to disturb them!
And why is my hood positioned so differently from everybody?!! Luckily there were people who helped to arrange our attire just before we went on stage! Phew!
The ceremony started sharply at 3pm. Yay! No delays! The ceremony took shorter than I expected. Everything was simple but grand. There was only a short video showcasing NUS before 3pm. Even the speeches were short and sweet. The Dean did not make a speech either. Before the presentation, the camera was zooming in at the audience at all angles and it did capture some funny scenes. There was a girl who was all slouched in her seat, sleeping really soundly only minutes after the ceremony started. Was she really that tired?
The presentation of degree scrolls started relatively quickly, although it soon became a bore having to sit through the awarding of Doctorates of Business and the different MBAs before it was the BBA - our turn.
Frankly speaking, it was only after the ceremony that I could finally put names to the faces I have seen around Bizad and vice versa, faces to the names I have heard. And to speak the truth, I don't recall seeing most of the faces that went on stage yesterday. This is how cooped up I am within my own circle of friends!
As the rows behind me started to file out for their turn on stage, I got even more nervous. I constantly rubbed my
Before I was due on stage, as I was beginning to wait for my turn off stage, I reminded myself to listen carefully to how the presenter would call out my name. And of course, my mind went totally blank when I was
Sounds simple enough? Wait till it's your turn! Even such seemingly simple instructions can turn out to be inexplicably complicated ones. It is scary how anxiety can grip anyone!
The valedictory speech followed right after the presentation. The speech was also short and sweet and although the message was rather meaningful, I could only remember the valedictorian saying things like "It was at Bizad that I learnt that project meetings could stretch to 3 am in the morning" and "Open book exams meant that all the answers would not be found in the textbook!" Hahaha.. such words really tug at any student's heartstrings. That it is NUS's 100th birthday or Bizad's 40th birthday this year doesn't really impact me. What I think I remember for a long time would be like what Augustin (the valeditorian) mentioned, the long project meetings, the crazy times spent during orientation, the boredom when faced with long sectionals and lectures, the hours spent slogging over that IT project (Brrr!!) and of course, the friends made.
After the ceremony which ended around 4.10pm, I met up with my parents who were sitting right at the top because they arrived on the dot. Since we were still waiting for my Grandma and sisters to arrive, I went on a photo-taking
Siwei and Yayu. It was such a surprise to see them. This was after the ceremony. They were even more excited than me!
Xinjie, another surprise visitor. She was my Macro Econs project group mate. Graduated last year.
Siew Kee.
Zhihao.
Meimei. Haven't seen this girl in ages!
Anson.
Eugene.
Lots more photos, but I think I better stop. This post is getting to be an excessively long one!
Lastly, to all the people who came for the graduation ceremony, and whom I have had the opportunity to take a photo with,
THANKS FOR COMING!!
I would definitely make the effort to attend your ceremony next year!
And to those who didn't turn up despite my constant hints pleas requests, I will make an even greater effort to turn up for your ceremony next year to make you feel even more guilty! Hiak hiak!
More photos at this site. Type zhiwei05@gmail.com. to view.
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