Graduation Day

(Backblip)

Today was graduation day for all of us at Sheffield College who completed FdAs and HNCs! The event was held in Cutler's Hall in Sheffield, which is probably one of the grandest buildings I've ever set foot in.

This is a picture of (from left to right): me, Fran, Phil, and Carol. Fran has been my tutor on and off over many years. She helped me get my distance learning English GCSE back in 2005 and was my personal tutor for half of my distance learning FdA as well. She's really something, and always goes above and beyond the call of duty! Next up is Phil - we were best buddies through most of the course (partly due to being the only people to survive the first learning set!). Carol is the administrator for the FdA and an all round really nice and helpful lady (and organised, which is nice for an admin!).

We had to stand in line for an hour and a half getting robed and having our photos done, having "refreshments", and then queueing up to go into the hall! The refreshments were pretty much non-existant, and as my group was the last to get in there we didn't really eat or drink anything (this was just after the official photos when this snap was taken). Luckily I thought to carry a water bottle with me, and I insisted to my parents that we eat before we got there as I suspected it wouldn't be much. Quite how graduands are expected to last for 3 hours with no lunch, no drink, and little bathroom opportunity, I'm not sure, but we managed it!

The main ceremony was held in a massive ball room, edged with marble and with huge austere paintings of nobles up on the walls (there was even one of Queen Victoria!). You had to go up a big double staircase to reach it. We entered to applause and sat in the middle aisles to await our turns to go up. We had live classical music to accompany everything, and the speeches were mercifully short! When I went up I got to shake hands with a former Minister of the Labour government, probably the most important fellow I've ever shaken hands with! I got my scroll and sat down shakily (apparently I didn't appear half as nervous as I felt!). Afterwards we got to do a full group photo with the stereotypical hat-throwing shot (at which point everyone lost their hats and ended up returning somebody elses to the robing room!).

It was a really great (if exhausting and at times uncomfortable!) day and one I'll always remember for sure.