Certified Bachelor (Bring in the Beer!)

I'm finally a graduate!

It was with cold sweat that I spent a night trying to sleep before the fateful day. RY was excitedly keeping track of the schedule of ceremonies and updated me about the last-minute change of the "important person" who I will shake hands with and get my degree from. While it used to be the President who usually graces the main ceremony, the President's name was removed and replaced with a pro-chancellor by the name of Mr. Andrew Chew. Sigh, so there's no longer any handshaking with the President and it was with that that I succumbed to sleep.

The next morning was alright I guess. We had a little tussle about whether my sister should gatecrash since she didn't have school and my mom was so kind to even suggest that she'll wait outside and my sister goes in with my father to the ceremony if we don't have sufficient tickets. Thankfully she didn't, as it was rainy and the security was strict thanks to the plethora of other "important people" attending the ceremony (more on that later). If she had come, she can't even enter UCC, the venue where the ceremony would have been held. I would have no idea what to do with her then. :X

So anyway so we arrived and there were strict security checks. It was later that I realised the Prime Minister and the Ministor Mentor were coming to listen to this ex-Premier from China receive his honourary Doctor of Letters... that explains. Anyway so the commencement started and we were the first. It was awfully embarrassing that I was the only one that day graduating with my degree major, so the poor Director had to read my degree title in full before I was allowed to finally put my hands on the scroll. And of course shaking Mr. Chew's hand.

These shots were only taken towards the end after the second half where the ex-Premier gave his speech on Sino-SG relations. The NUS choir gave a rousing performance and I realised the conductor was actually my neighbour for the past year in PGP!

However I don't recall his name...



Some shots from sitting at my seat. While everyone was initially quite excited and enthused to wear their motar boards, the interest waned after a while and everyone started taking them off, relieved at the sudden removed burden.

Haha that's YH doing a pose at my request. I didn't get to take a picture with him after that though, so I hope this won't be the last picture I'll have of such a great friend.

Haha, so this is DG and I, another USP student from School of Computing. Neither of us knew of each other's existence till the ceremony. Food for thought eh?

I had to take a shot of the ex-Premier but it was more for the hordes of photographers who clamoured for his pictures when he rose to collect his award. There was some pushing and shoving involved, akin to papparazzis. An eye opener for me, this one.

During the ex-Premier's speech. The photographers, after being prevent by the usherers from getting right in front of the stage, took photographs from the side instead. Some enterprising ones climbed up the stairs on the right leading to the back stage and shot from there too. Sounds like a cut throat world out there.. It was also very exciting to see the flurry of camera flashes go off whenever the ex-Premier raises his head to make eye-contact with the audience after lengthy reads off his script. So that's how they get their pictures..


The reward at the end of an arduous 4 years of undergraduate struggles. If you ask me, it's a tad disappointing - the paper's of flimsy quality (it has a few fingerprint bents from my mishandling as it's thin), the printing's obviously done in bulk as the parts which are customized (i.e. my name and the award) are not well-printed.

This one is nice. :)

So that's what I am. Hmm..