CIT Graduation

22 May 2014

I had my graduation ceremony from CIT on the 22^nd of May. It is a worthwhile journal entry as the last time I graduate from my other degree I couldn’t care less of what I studied that by the end of a 4 year study I didn’t bother attending the ceremony.

On the flip side of that, 6 years later I had managed to cram in cert 2 & 3 floristry in CIT in 1 year and the graduation event has blown out of proportion. My parents flown in from Jakarta to be there and I haven’t seen them in 2 years. My older brother also decided to attend, and I haven’t seen him for 4 years.

It is worthwhile in retrospect as they have given me the rotary club award. They have also ask me to come in early for an interview with the Canberra weekly and have invited me to make a speech as the ‘vote of thanks’ to the teachers on behalf of the students- which is the biggest honor anyone could ever give to me. My in laws were ecstatic- so they’re also coming. The funny thing about all this is, initially when CIT mailed me my testamur I accidentally threw it in recycling bin. I rang them up trying to get it sent back to me and told them that the letter had been damaged in the post from the rain…. In my defence, Greg told me to say that- and it sounded more respectable than accidentally throwing away my testamur in the recycling bin- so I did what he said.

All that honor and acknowledgement, my head should really be blown up like a balloon with ego right now, and so I’m grateful for the silly things that I do to bring me back down to earth. It would also be helpful if I had a cat- I would continually go back to it for a reality check.

To cut a long story short, I didn’t ended up doing my graduation speech. They didn’t tell me when I’m supposed to do it, so after I went up to the stage to receive my bit of paper I went out of the hall to catch a breath from my nerves. When I came back, the ceremony is over and I totally missed my speech.  I felt gutted. It was a once in a lifetime event and I completely missed it! Argh!

After the ceremony I wanted the family to get together for a bbq at home instead of going out for dinner. I figured it would be more social that way. I’m really glad that I did because in between dinner and dessert I read my speech in front of the people who actually cared about me. A few days after I realized that apart from my ego, my family and my teachers, I haven’t disappointed anyone else.

The rotary club had invited me to speak to them about my learning journey and what I will do with my career in a few weeks time so I’ll make it up then.