In the couple of days running up to my Graduation from UWI, I was feeling like a bucket of mixed emotions. I was excited, but nervous, confused but happy, tired and just I just kinda wanted it to be over and done with.
So today’s blog is gonna be all about my UWI graduation experience. First let me say I have had my fair share of graduation experiences. I have had approximately 5 graduation experiences before coming to UWI’s graduation, So I shouldn’t have been new to any of this at all.
So, my first task was to pay the graduation fees and collect the gown and hood from school. I went with one of my best friends, Cari, because of course, these things are more fun and memorable with a friend…Plus she was giving me a ride, and let’s be honest who doesn’t want a free ride.
We paid our fees and went to collect our gown and hood. They gave us our invitations for family/friends, fitted our gowns and gave us the correct colors for our hood. To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about collecting my gown. I was already sweating from wearing it just to fit and I could just feel the misery to come on graduation day. Plus I don’t know if it was because I was tired or hungry but, bigman, that gown was heavy to me.
Anyways..
The next task was to assemble my graduation outfit. Now, this is the part my mother complained about bitterly, because I spent approximately a month in the USA in my summer vacation and I knew I was graduating since then and I didn’t buy a dress… I was also home and online and didn’t buy a dress. So the entire week before graduation I was looking for something to wear.
I went to Harmony in town and tried on like 12 dresses… liked 4 and I still didn’t take any.
I was being picky really. I checked several stores in town and none tickled my fancy. I went to the strip malls on the south coast and found nothing. I am pretty sure that I tried on about 22 outfits, and something was always wrong.
Too big, Too small, Too fancy, Too simple, Look bad, I gonna have twins, too expensive, looks cheap, too short, Look man I was tired and my mother was ready to send me in a pillowcase.
Finally, I went to Sheraton, upstairs in Life and Style boutique, my saving grace.
She had about 4 white outfits in her store total. And I tried on 3. All fit. All were gorgeous on and I liked them, but one really stood out.
An all white jumper with half cut and circular flounce sleeves. I WAS IN LOVE. I was in the store dancing in the mirror, fluffing my hair and feeling SWEET!
Had all the ladies in the store laughing at me but admitting that the jumper did look very nice.
But we had one tiny issue though… All my boobs were out. The jumper had a plunging neckline straight down between my boobs and all I could see in my head were the rules for dress.
“VERY LOW CUT NECKLINES WITH EXPOSED CLEAVAGES, EXPOSED NAVELS AND OTHER FORMS OF UNSUITABLE DRESS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED”
Gulp. I was like…my shoes already supposed to be black but they were a dark gold and I wasn’t about no stress about how I’m not dressed appropriately on graduation day. So I didn’t wanna break too much rules…
Anyways, no biggie, my mummy could sew. So we bought the jumper ($65 on sale) and went down to Abed’s to look for an appliqué to cover up the split, got these lil flower-shell looking things. Cute.
I was happy about my outfit, but I still wasn’t excited for graduation.
Honestly, in that final week before graduation day I was doing little preparations, buying hair products, sorting jewelry and stitching up that split but I wasn’t really excited about it.
Grad rehearsal was the Friday before graduation day, and truthfully I didn’t know what they wanted to rehearse. To me it wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been placed in an email. At rehearsal we discussed the locations of the robing rooms, the way the graduation procession would go, and what time you would have to arrive at UWI for the respective ceremonies. Simple stuff.
Since I was the morning ceremony my arrival time was 8:15. I complained about this bitterly. I am not a morning person. AT ALL. So the fact that I had to get up at 5am was unsettling.
AHH… the morning of graduation day, I arose from my bed, bright eyed and bushy taile- That’s a lie. I was miserable as all hell. The alarm went off at 5.. I stopped it, opened my phone replied to messages and went back to sleep.
I really woke up at 6.
And of course like most times where you ignore your alarm clock, the remainder of the morning was then a rush. It took me an hour and 20 minutes to do my hair then I had to eat, and do my makeup. My best friend was outside at 8 and I still wasn’t ready. Sooooo, I shoved the remainder of my things into my bag and finished my makeup and added jewelry in the car on the way. Hot Mess.
Got to the robing room, about 8:30am which wasn’t even a room at all it was more of a robing corridor. I changed my shoes, got my gown pinned, let down my hair and got my name slip and then I was ready to stand in line. We stood there till about 9:15am even though they said that the procession would move at 9am. But I think in previous years the graduation procession is bigger and longer because they estimated that we would stand until 10am when the academic procession and the chancellor’s procession arrived.. but our procession took about 15 minutes. So we sat for half an hour before the beginning of the graduation. It wasn’t until the graduation procession that I became excited about graduating, because then I could really see everyone who was graduating and everyone looked so nice, dressed up and all and it was pretty cool.
When the graduation started with the chancellor’s speech, I thought it would be long and boring but to spare you all the details, basically he said that now that we are graduating the next part to tackle is life and that most of the time you don’t always end up in the exact field in which you studied for once you begin working. Inspiring!
My favorite part of the graduation was the musical interlude by the Cavite chorale. They did a lovely remix to Lil Rick’s - True Story to start, and that truly lifted my spirits just before the presentation of the graduates.
“I did, want to graduate from here every senseeee!!”
When going to accept my scroll I was nervous. I had my name slip in my hand and I don’t even remember who I handed it to or what they did with it, but I heard my name and I started walking!
My foot slip on that first step, but I didn’t stumble. I’m sure everyone has thought that the big fear is falling when going to accept your scroll. Lol, I shook the chancellor’s hand and he said “Congratulations Olivia” and I thanked him as I then moved to collect my scroll and take my picture with the registrar.
It happened fast. But I was proud afterwards.
The Valedictorian, Kai Bridgewater, gave a heartwarming speech covering everything from campus life to regional integration. That’s what made me cry in the middle of the ceremony.
Had to blink back the tears. I didn’t want to ruin my makeup but I almost broke out in an ugly cry because there wasn’t anything he said that wasn’t true.
After graduation, I was HUNGRY. I didn’t even want to pose for pictures. I was thinking about my bed and food. I just wanted to get out the gown and eat a Zinger sandwich from KFC.
We posed for some pictures in front of the stage and I made sure I got a couple with my dad (cause he’s always the photographer) and hustled out of there! As for professional photos, my best friend and I had signed up for our graduation photo packages and went to the studio to have our portraits taken early for 2 reasons. Before the 14th you got the double prints special and secondly, a lot of graduates would be trying to take photos on the day and we knew we would just want to go home, so we got all dressed up and took photos at the studio the week before graduation. When I was leaving a friend told me they were number 33 in line…Error. Not me.
The only major problem I have with graduation is that all of my friends could not afford to go or they were overseas, or back home overseas and couldn’t travel to come to graduation. Graduation truthfully costs a lot of money to attend when you really think about it. Having $315 to start is a lot already. I truthfully don’t like the idea that some people can’t cross the stage and accept their scrolls for that reason and it just gets more expensive the higher the degree.
Nevertheless, Congrats to all the graduates from this Class of 2018! We have all worked hard and I hope we continue to work hard and do well in life!
Anyway, this blog is SO much longer than my regular ones and I really hope you made it to the end and I didn’t bore you to death.
Today’s quote is UWI’s motto “ORIENS EX OCCIDENTE LUX” which translates to “ A Light Rising from the West.”
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Ciao!
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