The Graduate!!

Well, as of last Friday, I am officially a graduate! (I'm also officially unemployed but let's not go into that) I'll give you a quick rundown of the day, my memory's already hazy as I've been too busy to post since, but I'll try to remember it all.

Well, we set off before 9am so we had plenty of time. I went down with Mum and Chris, Dad was going to come down later. After a long, hot and boring journey we got onto campus. I had to do a bit of banking so thought I'd pay one last visit to the Warwick Uni branch of HSBC, then we went to get a spare ticket for Chris, as I was only allowed to prebook two tickets for the ceremony.

We went to a drinks reception in my department, faced all the inevitable 'so what next?' questions, managed to dodge them pretty well I think! I'm never good at making conversation when milling around so I didn't stop for long, but I did stop to chat to a few people. I got into a conversation with my former personal tutor, Prof David Thomas, and he talked about how I could use drama to help with the situation in Leeds now, told me about varioud drama projects which bridged Christian and Muslim communities. It was all very interesting and gave me food for thought (I have been pondering these ideas since, but I'm not going to say in what way, I don't want to jinx it!)

Then I went to get togged up, boy do graduation robes make you feel like a pillock!! I ended up with a mortar board that was too big for my head, and my robe kept slipping and pulling my shirt up (not attractive!) We had lunch outside by the piazza where I saw Tom Mort (my old housemate) and Peet, who proceeded to make sure Tom and I had our robes on properly (apparently he used to be a dresser for Burtons!) Chatted to them for a bit then decided sitting outside in the sun wearing an enormous robe was not the best of ideas so went into the arts centre.

There I saw Jenny 'Jampot' Malenoir, my best friend on the course. She was bubbly and mad as ever, complained that the mortar board made her hair look silly! She's going to work as a classroom assistant for a while before doing an MA in children's literature - I think it's just an excuse to postpone growing up, and I think she'd agree with me!

Well, after waiting around for a bit, I had to go register and get in the hall. You could tell there were theatre students in - my word were we rowdy! We were doing mexican waves before the ceremony, then wehen we went up for our degrees, we all cheered each other! Well, we have spent three years learning to be expressive ...

Out of the ceremony, straight to the piazza for the group photo, which I'd been organising. I managed to get most people there on time, unfortunately Kate and Julia, who I was quite close to, didn't make it in time, which I was very sad about. It would have been nice to have the lot of us on the photo so I could remember everyone. Anyway, we stood in the piazza, squinting against the sun, threw our hats in the air, then that was it.

Dad took a few photos of me, as he hadn't arrived until I'd already gone into the ceremony, then I dropped off my robes and we went to the Phantom Coach for a meal with Charlie and Rachel (Charlie's our best man, Rachel's his girlfriend, they're both very good friends of ours). It was a nice meal, Charlie and Rachel seemed to get on well with my parents, and it was good to see them again. The food was standard pub food, neither terrible nor great!

Then i went back to Lincoln, reflecting on the day, on the fact I have a degree even though I still think of myself as 18, and on my need to get a job ....