Yesterday was graduation day for RMIT students and our second son, Hamzah was one of them. This was the main reason that I came to Melbourne, actually. He majored in Finance and Economics and after three years, there he was, Alhamdulillah, graduating at last! The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology almost 6,000 graduands started their day with a parade through the streets of Melbourne along with their families and friends and in the evening they attended the actual graduating ceremony.
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| Getting ready at start of the parade |
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| Trying to figure out how to put on the hood.. |
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| A little help from a friend (photographer and housemate, Irfan) |
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| The Parade |
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| A lot of Chinese, Vietnamese and Asian students.. |
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| Walking along the street..the weather was good, Alhamdulillah! |
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| Met up with Norlin's family (we went sightseeing together a post ago) |
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| Picture taken with some friends |
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| Hamzah with Norlin and another graduating friend |
Well, in the evening we congregated at a stadium, where all of the graduating students from various schools were receiving their scrolls AT THE SAME TIME! Universities in Malaysia (and other universities in Melbourne, too actually) take days to cover their graduation ceremonies. How they did it? Divide the stadium to accommodate 13 mini stages where a big screen on each stage will show up the names of every graduating students as the go on the stage to receive their scrolls. Of course for the PhDs graduands, their names were called out as they went on stage before the other students' turn. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch a photo of Hamzah as he went on stage...
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| I was seated above the stage where Hamzah would be receiving his scrolls |
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| This guy was going through the boring bit by playing a game on his cell-phone..(I would have done the same if my phone hadn't run out of batteries!) |
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| The graduands lining up to go on the stage one by one.. |
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| I think this is the reason why they decided not to call out students' name..lol |
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| Excited parents.. |
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| Another thrilled and enthusiastic family members |
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| Where it all happened.. |
Well, a rather tiring day for everyone, I bet... Anyway, congratulations Hamzah! A different life awaits you now and let's pray that whatever you intend to do you always do it to gain the Blessings of Allah in this Life and the Hereafter...Amin. Love you Bang Ngah!
"Trying to figure out how to put on the hood.."
ReplyDeleteI feel his pain. I have to admit, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about those robes anyway and by the end of the day, I was itching to throw them in the nearest skip. (But I wasn't allowed, as they were rented) I did use the hat as a placemat briefly though, mostly in protest against the women who shouted at me because I didn't have the robes on correctly. (Even though another woman from the same company had assured me they were on correctly)
But anyway, congratulations to Hamzah. :) Graduation's one of those strange times where you're not entirely sure what to feel. You might be worried about the graduate jobs market, you might be excited about the future, you might feel sad that university is over. But the thing about one chapter of your life closing is that another one is about to open. :)
Thanks Nicola, were you a recent graduate as well? If so, congratulations! Sorry I didn't notice the comment until today..
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