So with the U of A, I trained myself to say "convocate" instead of "graduate". Now I have to retrain myself... U of York students just plain old 'graduate'. Ah well. But as it turns out, I'm GOING to the ceremony! Yay! So on the 28 of March, I'll hop a plane with my parents (this part I'm a little doubtful about...) get to London on the 29th, and wake up first bloody thing in the morning on the 30th to collect my gown, get pictures done, etc. and go graduate. Much like the first time I gr... convocated... I'm having mixed feelings about this one.
a) I hate having a fuss made over me and my achievements. I'm not all that special or unique. Thousands of other people get Master's degrees each year, so I don't see why they need to make that much fuss, put me in the limelight, take pictures (I'm totally UN photogenic). Not looking forward to that.
b) TOTALLY looking forward to being back in York. I miss it. Much as I was longing to get home, there's something to be said for wandering down thousand-year-old streets each day and having a Starbucks coffee in a 400-year-old house.
c) Don't know what I'm going to do with the 'rents on the Saturday. They say they'll be fine wandering around without me, but I don't know. I feel fairly guilty abandoning them in a foreign country (although having said that, they're sending me home early so that they can gad about in Britain for an extra week and I can come back to work... *sigh*). Especially don't like the fuss they'll be making about me. Drives me nuts. Absolutely nuts. I wish they could just sortof let me have the robes so I could take pictures (to satisfy the 'rents) and then give me the degree with no real ceremony (although if I'd gone to Cambridge, I'd go to the ceremony! It's all in Latin!) and let me go on my way. But, no, I need to go to the ceremony (in the ugliest building on Campus, by the way), have photos taken, go to the luncheon afterwards, schmooze and just generally make myself pleasant for an entire day.
d) have a feeling it's not going to be enough time - I'll get there on Thursday, graduation is on the Friday, Saturday is free, Sunday I'll have to head back to London and then fly out on Monday back to Edmonton...
e) Get to order my graduation robe rental from a place called Ede and Ravenscroft - who've been making graduation robes since 1689 (according to their website...). How cool is that?
f) York's robes are unfortunately ugly as all hell.
So there you have it, folks. I'm sitting here about to bawl and I'm not entirely sure why... I guess it's 'cuz after this I'll have no excuse to head back to England at all in the near future... and I'm not sure when I'll get to go back again at all. Lord knows I'll still not be making enough money to put a lot away for savings... I guess as long as graduation was still just a "way off in the future" sort of thing I could just pretend that it hadn't all really ended and now I can't get away with that any more.
And on a completely unrelated note, if I hear "All I want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey one more time, I may shoot myself.
a) I hate having a fuss made over me and my achievements. I'm not all that special or unique. Thousands of other people get Master's degrees each year, so I don't see why they need to make that much fuss, put me in the limelight, take pictures (I'm totally UN photogenic). Not looking forward to that.
b) TOTALLY looking forward to being back in York. I miss it. Much as I was longing to get home, there's something to be said for wandering down thousand-year-old streets each day and having a Starbucks coffee in a 400-year-old house.
c) Don't know what I'm going to do with the 'rents on the Saturday. They say they'll be fine wandering around without me, but I don't know. I feel fairly guilty abandoning them in a foreign country (although having said that, they're sending me home early so that they can gad about in Britain for an extra week and I can come back to work... *sigh*). Especially don't like the fuss they'll be making about me. Drives me nuts. Absolutely nuts. I wish they could just sortof let me have the robes so I could take pictures (to satisfy the 'rents) and then give me the degree with no real ceremony (although if I'd gone to Cambridge, I'd go to the ceremony! It's all in Latin!) and let me go on my way. But, no, I need to go to the ceremony (in the ugliest building on Campus, by the way), have photos taken, go to the luncheon afterwards, schmooze and just generally make myself pleasant for an entire day.
d) have a feeling it's not going to be enough time - I'll get there on Thursday, graduation is on the Friday, Saturday is free, Sunday I'll have to head back to London and then fly out on Monday back to Edmonton...
e) Get to order my graduation robe rental from a place called Ede and Ravenscroft - who've been making graduation robes since 1689 (according to their website...). How cool is that?
f) York's robes are unfortunately ugly as all hell.
So there you have it, folks. I'm sitting here about to bawl and I'm not entirely sure why... I guess it's 'cuz after this I'll have no excuse to head back to England at all in the near future... and I'm not sure when I'll get to go back again at all. Lord knows I'll still not be making enough money to put a lot away for savings... I guess as long as graduation was still just a "way off in the future" sort of thing I could just pretend that it hadn't all really ended and now I can't get away with that any more.
And on a completely unrelated note, if I hear "All I want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey one more time, I may shoot myself.
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School is the one thing I can stand to be made a fuss about. Everyone is born, there are hundreds of weddings a day (and few of them are actually 'special'), most people celebrate the holidays, and we do so little work to earn these festivities! But you worked so hard to earn not only a BA, but now an MA, and while other people may have them, you worked so hard to get where you are, so I think you've earned the right to celebrate and be celebrated.
Kate,
First of all, please don't diss Mariah Carey. Beneath the ego and backwards in time about ten years she is a talented artist.
Second, take every opportunity to let your parents remind you how special and unique you are. You're so lucky to be jetting across the ocean again so soon!
Amy
Kate--Thousands of people do get MAs every year, but this one has your name on it and that makes it categorically unique. I flew back to Ontario for my Masters convo-gradu-ma-cation after being home for a number of months, and I am so glad that I did. Just being there was a reminder of the validity of the work--and hey, I wasn't curing cancer either, I was writing on Canadian Novels of the Great War. T didn't go to his MA celebrations, we were still living there at the time and we slept in and missed it. He really regrets it.
Anyhoo--allow yourself the indulgeance of being celebrated!
E.
SO excited for you!! And I can't wait to see the pictures of your convocation!
Re your tagline, my wife puts it this way: I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now...whatever that is.