Graduation

Date: 17 July 2008 18:42:47

I graduated yesterday. 10 months after finishing uni. The delay was due to the fact we finished in August, so we had to wait till the following year's graduation to actually go through the ceremony. And now we have to wait several more months before receiving our certificates. It was weird in some ways, graduating so long finishing - it didn't feel quite real. But on the other hand, it was nice to go back and see my coursemates, lecturers and meet up with friends. I spent 2 nights in Swansea, so I was able to do the Brynmill / uni rounds (sorry if I didn't get to you!).

Overall the experience was just that - an experience. A lot of the time I felt like someone out of Harry Potter, with this silly gown and hat on. Apparently it looked even more Harry Potterish when I clambered through the trees to the beach in my gown. Some of the lecturers were acting as stewards to show the graduates where to walk, and they were all carrying big metal wands, which really did look like something out of Harry Potter, especially as they were gowned up too. Although, I believe we had more lecturers attending the ceremony than any other ceremony. Which is quite good.

I had some nice chats with a few of my lecturers afterwards, and I visited my supervisor the day before. My old supervisor was embarrassing when she started talking to my Mum afterwards. She was my supervisor with my dissertation in my 3rd year, and as many readers will know, this period wasn't exactly the smoothest of times in my life. My supervisor, for a variety of reasons, became an important support mechanism. Anyway, she was telling my parents how proud she was of me, for getting through everything and for coming out with a 2:1. I just blushed and started talking to someone else. But thinking back, I don't think I could have done half of what I did without the support of so many friends and family. So I'd just like to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU. Whether you cooked a meal, sent a card, gave me a hug, lent a listening ear, took me to pizza hut or were simply there - you helped. As my supervisor once said, I had a football stadium full of supportive people, and I'll never forget that.*

After sitting through the boring ceremony and using all available trees, beaches and backdrops for photos, I was relieved of my silly gown, and we went down to Bracklet Bay for a very nice meal. I ate loads of yummy food and drank more than my share of wine, and it was good :) As co-incidence would have it, about 6 of my friends from my course had also chosen the same restaurant for a celebratory meal, so it was nice to have another chance to say hello and goodbye to them!

And I thought you might like to see some pics...

* Apologies if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about!