I had my graduation ceremony for my Master of Interactive Multimedia (MIMM) yesterday. I was really looking forward to wearing a square hat again. Too bad we don’t get to keep them. I think the guy fitted me with one that was too big, though, because it kept slipping off my head.

I had a blue gown this time; for my Bachelors I had an orange one.

I left work early to go to the ceremony, since we had to be there ninety minutes before the ceremony so we could get our gown and hat (I actually don’t think they call it a hat, but oh well). The line was already really long when I got there at 4:10pm or so. I suppose the ninety minutes went by pretty fast, too, since we had to be inside the hall about twenty minutes before the ceremony.

I asked James to hang onto my bag; he wasn’t going to the ceremony because he gave his spot to my brother Brandon. I could only take three guests into the ceremony itself, so that was my parents and Brandon. The organisers were making sure everyone had pockets and told everyone to leave their belongings with their guests if they couldn’t fit it in their pockets or keep a small bag under their gown.

I didn’t have any pockets in my dress, but my really stupid thought was, “I’m not going in without my phone. I might need to message my parents.”

I didn’t think it through, so my conversation with one of the organisers at the door went a little bit like this.

“Do you have a pocket?”
“Ah, nope.”
“Organiser: Where are you going to put your phone?”
“Oh, I’ll just put it under my arm or something.”
“You have to put your phone somewhere…”
“Yeah, I’ll figure it out.”
“If you don’t have a pocket,” the guy said quite seriously, “Where are you going to put your phone? You have to put it somewhere.”
After hesitating, I said slightly exasperatedly, “I’ll put it in my shirt.”

I would have said the word bra instead of shirt, but I’m pretty sure he knew what I actually meant, because he said “alright” with a bit of a laugh, and I didn’t want anyone to hear me say that out loud.

Of course, there was also the option of asking someone else in front of me to pocket my phone. I realised I was siting around most of my classmates and could have asked them. Oh well. Whatever works.

Apparently, James and Lilian could see me from the screen outside the hall and said they could see me looking down and texting on my phone during the ceremony. Oops. I hope that’s not on the DVD and was just projected on that screen. I was telling Brandon something important about my camera!

Afterwards there were some refreshments outside. I wasn’t too keen on any, I just wanted to grab dinner with my family and friends – we had planned to get dinner at a yum cha restaurant. It was also my dad’s birthday yesterday, and Ricky’s last week, so it was like three celebrations in one. Or four, if you count that James also graduated, but decided not to attend his ceremony and to just pick up his certificate. Or five, if you count that Lilian also graduated a few weeks ago.

Of course, 8:00pm (the time we finally got there) was when yum cha was already over, so we just had a regular Chinese dinner. Tristan eventually decided to come; he didn’t want to before. I’m really glad he did, though. :3

It was a long road. And I got so stressed along the way. But I’m glad I made it through to the end, two years later. And to think about a year ago I was very close to quitting. I’m proud that I pushed on through, but I couldn’t have done it without support from my friends and family.

Onto bigger and better things.