On Monday I was admitted by the University of Cape Town to the degree of Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Mathematics of Computer Science, in the first class. While I am, of course, very pleased to have graduated (and incredibly pleased that the Year From Hell is over), the whole “graduation experience” wasn’t nearly as exciting as last time, I guess because this time I knew what to expect.
Anyone who has mentioned graduation to me will have heard my description of it as “three hours of boredom punctuated by a moment of excitement”. (I didn’t make that up; it’s a paraphrase of the quote about war: “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror”.) I guess I attend it anyway because it serves as a useful psychological “marker” that the degree is over. If I didn’t go, I think I’d have a huge sense of anticlimax.
(The fact that I go may also have something to do with my parents being on staff and thus able to sit on the stage and put the hood over my head; also something to do with my grandmother’s demand for photographs.)