I had my university graduation on Tuesday.  Got to wear the funny hat and hot gown, complete with the hideous burnt orange sash that Humanities and Social Science graduates at the University of Technology Sydney get to don.

It’s a bit weird to have the ceremony a whole six months after one has finished classes and assignments.  In high school, having a graduation ceremony when you had just finished school meant something.  It was a symbol of passing from one stage of life to another.  Graduating from uni six months after finishing is weird, because I have already passed from the student life to the 9-to-5 working girl life.  So it didn’t really signify anything.  Without loved ones there (except my darling friends of course), and in a university where none of the academic staff on the stage at the ceremony would have even known my name, the whole thing really did bring that phrase "degree factory" to mind.  The commercialisation of the ceremony only further highlighted this.

Reflections about finishing happened six months ago while sculling champagne after our last class. Going back to uni, a place I am now pretty detached from and haven’t visited in six months, was kinda just odd.  It brought back some memories, but mostly a shrug of the shoulders.  I dealt with all that emotional junk six months ago.

But I have my expensive piece of paper now.

And we did manage to run over to the Clare in our gowns for a drink for old times sake… and The Loft.  And we did eat some seedy food from the uni food court (which has been glitzed up a bit since we left six months ago).  I also got to catch up with a couple of people I hadn’t seen in a while.  So there were positives.

And you don’t always have an excuse to run around in such a stupid outfit.