Thursday, September 07, 2006

My UCL Graduation Ceremony

Yesterday was the officially the end of my academic life: My Graduation.

It was the day that finally marked the ending of my 3 years at University College London and also probably the last time I would get to see many of the great friends I made at university.

Pic Info: A picture of me and one of my best friends at university: Hasan Ali from the Middle-East.

The Ceremony kicked off with the Vice-Provost of UCL giving a rather interesting speech which I guess was aimed at convincing all of us how good UCL is.

UCL is the 3rd oldest university in the UK (right after Oxford and Cambridge) and apparently one of the four UK universities that made it to the Top 25 Universities of the World according to a ranking by Newsweek (somebody wanna double-check this little statement for me?) Perhaps I should've reminded him that back in Malaysia, few has ever heard of UCL but I pondered the possibility of me being beaten up very badly by UCL-Patriots there and I decided to keep my mouth shut.

So I focused my attention to everything else on stage.
I just couldn't help but notice that halfway through the ceremony, a good number of the academic professors on stage were falling asleep one by one. Then again, I guess it's not my place to blame them for that since this is probably just one of the million graduation ceremonies they would have to be going in their lifetimes. Then before I knew it, it was my turn to go on stage to shake hands with the Almighty Vice-Provost of UCL.

My name was called and I heard the clappings of the audience that I bet were very bored by the time it reached my turn.

I walked on to the stage and shook hands with the Vice Provost and he said to me
"Congratulations on your graduating from University College London, what are your plans now?"

I looked at him with a nervous smile while watching the professors behind me stare intently at me and I replied
"I run an internet business of my own now sir."

I looked at him expecting him to say
"WHAT?! YOU FOOL!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU GO WORK IN AN INVESTMENT BANK LIKE EVERYONE ELSE AND MAKE BIG MONEY?!?!"

But instead he said
"Wow!!! That's very enterprising of you. I do wish you good luck and hope you succeed."

I said
"Thank you... I hope so too".

and I walked off the stage.

Anyway, since it was the last time I was going to see many of my friends we made sure that we took lots of pictures.

It was interesting seeing where many of my friends were going.

A big bulk of them had jobs at investment banks like Goldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan and another big bulk of them were going off to do postgraduate studies at universities like Harvard and Stanford. Pic Info: Alina, Joanne and I waiting for the ceremony to start

It was truly humbling being in the presence of all these high achievers and you know will somehow make it big one day in whatever they do.
Pic Info: My last picture with Alina right after our Graduation Ceremony.

Anyway, for those of you who might be interested, here's a video of the defining moment when I went on stage to shake hands with the Vice-Provost.



For a bunch of 22 year olds in London, a new chapter in life has just begun.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

he speakeths ze truthes! congrats.. on.. ur.. er.. watever. i hope i graduate soon too! lalalala

you can check it out for urself. they oh-so NEARLY fell out of the top 25.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/

Anonymous said...

Honestly I never heard of UCL too. But if you ask the british if they ever heard of any malaysian universities' name before, I doubt it. I'm studying in malaysia university

Anonymous said...

I'm sad I didn't a pic with you in your robes... disappointment Tim... disappointment...boohoo

Eve said...

congratulation on ur graduation :)

Tim Roll-Pickering said...

UCL is the 3rd oldest university in the UK (right after Oxford and Cambridge)

Erm what's happened to St. Andrews? Glasgow? Aberdeen? Edinburgh? Lampeter? Durham?

aL said...

tahniah diucapkan =)

Anonymous said...

Dear Tim,
Congratulations!!!

Gwendolynne said...

Congratulations!

Tua tua liao

pinolobu said...

Why is the grad held in September? Why not right after the results come out in July? Then you can have all summer Eurorailing or stuff like that.

It's like wasting your money [or rather: an excuse to spend more money] to come back all the way to London just to attend a grad ceremony.

Anonymous said...

Con..graastule...toin

fuck! how do you spell that ... damn long la ...

Boss Stewie said...

suicidal: AHAHHAAHHA NEARLY FELL out. no wonder he said Top 25 and NOT Top 20! HAHAAHHA cuz we wouldn't have made it in the top 20

ricadoe: well i guess that's true.. few malaysians have heard of ucl but a lot of them have heard of cambridge, oxford and even imperial college.

tim roll-pickering: i guess they came a little later.. but i'm sure they're just as good universities.. prince william went to st andrews right?

al: thanks very much al

erin: thanks erin.. yes i can finally say that now .. and yes.. i'm sure the professors have heard the speech over and over again every year.

anonymous: thank u thank u

teh gwenneh: haihh yes.. i have to start acting like a grown up some time soon

pinolobu: i guess it's just another reason for us to come back to the uk and spend more to stimulate the british economy.

earl: don't bother saying it. i know what u mean .. thank u :P

Tim Roll-Pickering said...

Erm St. Andrews was founded and chartered four centuries before UCL. Even King's got its charter earlier.

But anyway congratulations!

§pinzer said...

congrats man, you've joined the bunch of graduates =)

Anonymous said...

how do they read your name? hahaha... sound so funny...

Congrats anyway... :p

Anonymous said...

if i were in ur shoes, my parents wld say.. WHAT! FLY BACK ALL THE WAY JUS FOR CONVO?!

haha. thn again.. u flew back for the duck. not the ceremony. HAH!

Anonymous said...

Okay okay, jokes aside. Now where's my duck?

chocolat-latte' said...

Congratulations. ;)

No teasing of you today. ;)

WMD: Wife, Mother, Daughter said...

Congratulations. UCL is a very good university and the Economics dept has a 5* rating.

Unknown said...

Guess i cant be left out on the congratulating part :)
but from another POV, your freaking OLD... but dang, i'm jz another year away.... and i dun have any plans for an internet business yet. cham lor... i work for u can ar boss? i think by that time ur small little company will be earning big bucks right? so i will have my monthly pay?

Anonymous said...

william leong: queue up behind me hor. i asked him for a job first! hahaha.

eh boss: forgot to say.. congrats. :)

Anonymous said...

*me burned joss sticks 2 heaven 2 celbrate Boss Stewie graduations and also pray tat he make me pregnent so i can take over his business*

Boss Stewie, congratulations *smiles*

Anonymous said...

haha ... wa tarak pegi oversea belajar ... speaking tarak baik ...

awkakakakakakka

***thumbs up!

Boss Stewie said...

tim: oh really? u might want to consider taking legal action against my uni for falsely proclaiming that we're the 3rd oldest when we're supposedly not :P


spinzer: thanks tock

cely: hahaha they didn't pronounce it very well... i know i know

daphne: ah it is onlyy true.. i'm back for the duck.. not for the convocation.. it would be unjustified to fly all the way back just for a convocation

lance: sorry lar.. airport security dun let me bring it through

choc: thanks audrey

william: i dun think my little dotcom can ever afford to hire u

chipsi: uhmm

earl: thank u thank u

wmd: ahh well.. studying economics at ucl wasn't at fun as u'd imagine

Anonymous said...

My, Congratulations on your graduation, but you look a mess compared to that cool Bahraini guy.

Congrats buddy.

Min L. Fu said...

Hey congratulations,

BTW, what takes him so long to let go the hand shake?

J said...

(I'm a bit slow, but better late than never right?)
CONGRATS!
:)

Boss Stewie said...

hasan: LOL... in malaysia we call that... 'tak tahu malu'.. meaning no shy

min l fu: well he was talking to me :P

j: thanks J