finally. attended the convocation today. kwang and bee was there. it was boring, as usual. then again, the thought of wearing the robe and parading up to receive the scroll, the 5 seconds of fame and the recognition of achievement motivated many of us post-graduates to attend.
the last time i attended a convocation was in 1991 when i graduated from my bachelor (honours) degree. 17 had passed. i shared with raymond and yazid two days back that this time round, the feel was very different, somewhat muted. and looking old (well, ok - looking mature) certainly dampened the feel of the event. you see, when i went to collect my certificate and my gown last month, there were many vendors that lined the auditorium. and they were rushing to the sweet young 20-something year olds to sign up for this, sign up for that etc. and then when i walked through them, none of them actually approach me! wtf! i should have felt very much offended.. but arh well, i guess i looked too mature to come across as a `to-be-graduate'. perhaps, i might have even come across as someone who had gone to collect the gown for his son or daughter! so, for that, the vendors were forgiven :-)
today's ceremony was no different from any other ceremonies i had attended before... get seated, stand to welcome the entrance of the provost, dean and academic staff, national anthem, speech, certificate presentation, national anthem and end. but two things stood up - there was a short performance by a yang qin and a sheng player; and the really really bad speech by the girl who delivered the valedictory speech.
it's a first for me to attend a ceremony where in the middle (when every one was either asleep or nearly dead) to be rudely awakened by a performance... :-) but the worst part of it all was the damned bloody lousy speech at the end of the presentation. not only was the content bad, she even delivered it in a slang that sounded neither chinese, english, american or any language i know... and to top it off, amidst her lousy speech that did not seemed coherent at times, she suddenly shouted out through the mike, asked all of us in the gallery to stand up, turn around and thank our parents... this little `order' put almost all of us post-graduates seated in front (more of half the graduates attending the convocation) in a fix - many of us did not invite our parents... it was funny cos suddenly half the audit did not know whether to stand or sit. and many were talking aloud - what parents? my (friends, husband, wife, kids...) are here... but well... in the end, we obliged. we all stood, turned back... and followed suit in the clapping. and before we can turn around, she said (in an almost inaudible voice now) thank you and went off the stage... we were all left standing not knowing wat to do!
could see all the tensions in the face of the post-graduates. it was bad. but in a way, i could also see the forgiving face of the post-graduates. it was after all, a phase of life that we had gone through. and for that, we smiled, took our seats again and the ceremony ended soon after...
the last time i attended a convocation was in 1991 when i graduated from my bachelor (honours) degree. 17 had passed. i shared with raymond and yazid two days back that this time round, the feel was very different, somewhat muted. and looking old (well, ok - looking mature) certainly dampened the feel of the event. you see, when i went to collect my certificate and my gown last month, there were many vendors that lined the auditorium. and they were rushing to the sweet young 20-something year olds to sign up for this, sign up for that etc. and then when i walked through them, none of them actually approach me! wtf! i should have felt very much offended.. but arh well, i guess i looked too mature to come across as a `to-be-graduate'. perhaps, i might have even come across as someone who had gone to collect the gown for his son or daughter! so, for that, the vendors were forgiven :-)
today's ceremony was no different from any other ceremonies i had attended before... get seated, stand to welcome the entrance of the provost, dean and academic staff, national anthem, speech, certificate presentation, national anthem and end. but two things stood up - there was a short performance by a yang qin and a sheng player; and the really really bad speech by the girl who delivered the valedictory speech.
it's a first for me to attend a ceremony where in the middle (when every one was either asleep or nearly dead) to be rudely awakened by a performance... :-) but the worst part of it all was the damned bloody lousy speech at the end of the presentation. not only was the content bad, she even delivered it in a slang that sounded neither chinese, english, american or any language i know... and to top it off, amidst her lousy speech that did not seemed coherent at times, she suddenly shouted out through the mike, asked all of us in the gallery to stand up, turn around and thank our parents... this little `order' put almost all of us post-graduates seated in front (more of half the graduates attending the convocation) in a fix - many of us did not invite our parents... it was funny cos suddenly half the audit did not know whether to stand or sit. and many were talking aloud - what parents? my (friends, husband, wife, kids...) are here... but well... in the end, we obliged. we all stood, turned back... and followed suit in the clapping. and before we can turn around, she said (in an almost inaudible voice now) thank you and went off the stage... we were all left standing not knowing wat to do!
could see all the tensions in the face of the post-graduates. it was bad. but in a way, i could also see the forgiving face of the post-graduates. it was after all, a phase of life that we had gone through. and for that, we smiled, took our seats again and the ceremony ended soon after...
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