Unforgettable

Convocation at Columbia University (known as Commencement Week) was a two day affair. The first day was the School ceremony (ie. Business School, Lib Art College,Engineering School etc each held its own ceremony) where students filed pass the stage as their name was called. The second day was a combined ceremony for all graduates of the whole University. So in the huge open field between the library and the Admin Building (both with Roman columns) thousands of young men and women doning the light blue gown were seated in blocks according to their faculty near the steps of the Library . Parents of various nationalities were seated in the open field. Speeches were made and the jubilant graduates from the various schools pitched against each other with their cheers and mascots on a beautiful day with the finest weather. The ceremony ended with both graduates and parents swinging to the rythmn of "New York, New York" from the band. Various formal receptions also took place in the evening for parents of graduates receiving different types of honours. All in all, it was a most unforgettable experience for the parents, maybe all choreographed to make them feel that the money is well spent haha.

As the campus grounds is vast and has beautiful architecture, there was great fun in photo taking as well. Whilst trying to find yet another beautiful backdrop my daughter spotted her friend from Singapore on a high vantage point at the Admin building busy taking pictures with her parents. She ran up the steps to meet her whilst my husband and I followed. As we were nearing I heard a man shouting out to me "Hey, I think I know you". It was the Spore girl's father. He said we were from the same tutorial in University. I had completely no recognition of this guy and checked with him the year we graduated etc to verify his memory. As I acknowledged the accuracy of the statistics, I struggled to place a name and face of him in my class. I really could not figure out how this balding and rounded fellow, now in his late fifties, would look like as a young man of early twenties. We exchanged names and realised that he was actually in a tutorial group ahead of mine which was based on alphabetical order of our last name. He is now retired and we shared the justification of early retirement. Anyway I asked him "So, what did you do after you left school?" In a flash it occurred to me how irrelevantly outdated the question was, asking a retiree what he did after he left school. Maybe, this question is more appropriate to be exchanged by our children. Whatever path we had taken seemed to be of little significance now. Hence after briefly sharing our ex-career, we engaged more with exchanges about our family and our interests at retirement. We seem to understand what we value most at the end of the day. An unforgettable experience at the 2011 graduation ceremony in Columbia U is one of them.
(click on picture for better image)