Commencement

Trust the school to come up with such a name for convocation.

Well, I suppose it is true that while graduation does mark the end of one's education, it also heralds the beginning of a totally new phase in one's life. I know, I know, the "new phase of life" phrase is so often used that some part of the brain just shuts down when one sees it being used to describe an event.

BUT. Isn't it really so. Perhaps for (roughly) half of the country's population, entering the army and serving the nation is the first time when this phrase truly applies. That is when one's entire life changes and when old routines become meaningless and get overwritten in quite an abrupt manner. Yet for the other 50%, it's been school all along, just in mildly varied methods of teaching. For them this is the breakpoint.

Graduating from university. I don't know about you but the thought of it never fails to make me draw a larger breath. It entails making so many decisions about the future. To study more? Or to join the workforce and start contributing to your CPF? (Or to work for a year and then study more?) To be idealistic, looking for that perfect job? Or to be realistic, taking what comes?

I don't know how many people actually still think about this now but the idea of wanting to do better than the last generation is probably not new. Like our parents probably dreamed of living in HDB flats and working in the new industrial estates rather than following their parents', our grandparents', footsteps in the family farm. And my hopes of living in a penthouse with a fantastic view and my other hopes about my future employment.

This "doing better" notion is always hanging around my conscious thoughts somewhere. It is real. I have the potential of earning hell of a lot more money when I start working. I really do. So sometimes I just feel like I should get the *bleep* out of school faster and start working. (In the mean time I should not spend so much of my parents' money). I guess for some of my contemporaries whose parents are university graduates and working professionals (or whose family is quite happily well off), this is entirely irrelevant. Or just less relevant. I don't know.

I wonder if I should do post-grad and spend more time in school or go out and start earning my keep. The unemployed feeling is... uncomfortable. I should be supporting my parents or something.

Commencement. Well, I had better not screw up my honours year. Ok, let's not mince words here. I WANT A FIRST CLASS. I want to do my parents proud. I want to do myself proud.

So before Commencement 2007 comes around, here's presenting a member of the Class of 2006: Congrats! (heh, again.)