Finale

1. It felt a little strange walking across the stage, in full robes, being congratulated by the Chancellor and walking off with my degree. There was a smattering of polite applause, followed by silence whilst the Chancellor convey a few quite words of congratulations, followed by the name of the next person to receive their degree. The Chancellor said more than I thought he would. There were a lot of people in the one ceremony, so I expected a short handshake and off I went. But he did make an effort to say a few words to each of the graduands, which was more than I could say for some of my (ex) tutors.

2. It was a nice day to graduate on, and not too hot. The robes might make one feel special, but a 40 degree day would spoil the moment fairly quickly. There were the obligatory photos at the end, and after an hour of “which camera am I supposed to be looking at?” it got a mite tedious. Still, being the first in the family to finish a Bachelor’s degree was a mighty proud moment for my parents, no doubt there were a number of times during my formative years where they must’ve thought they’d lost me to the lure of social evils.

3. My abysmal HSC scores didn’t help.

4. This, however is not the end. No, the Taxman will remind me every payday of my extra due to society, and the pretty certificate acknowledging our efforts starts to resemble prisoner parole papers. My academic record will forever remind me that I could’ve achieved more but didn’t — however with a final tally of 3 High Distinctions, 8 Distinctions, 10 Credits, 6 Passes and 3 Fails, I think I did OK.

5. Fuck of a lot better than my HSC!

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