Last Saturday was my sister-in-law’s graduation ceremony. As I’m with child, we didn’t make it for the studio photo session; instead we dropped by after the ceremony to take photos with Yvonne and parents-in-law. I’m glad we went according to that plan because I’ve never seen such a big crowd gathered at one place (not forgetting with big big bouquets of flowers and stuffed toys clutched in their arms) in my life. Graduating from UTAR, it was sort of expected that the whole she-bang was to be held in Wisma MCA.

Both David and I, along with my brother in law and his girlfriend made our way to the lobby of Wisma MCA, hoping to find a spot where we can wait for Yvonne and have photos taken. It seemed like the ceremony wasn’t over yet and everyone was just waiting around, and honestly, it was almost claustrophobic. We decided to wait it out over at the café in Nikko Hotel together with 2 aunties, an uncle and the cousin. Oh and of course brother-in-law and girlfriend.

Half an hour later Yvonne appeared with her mum and dad, frantically trying to balance in her hands 2 HUGE bouquets, a stuffed bear, 2 mini balloons, a Mont Blanc pen AND the mortar board on her head.

Ashley (the cousin), Yvonne, and Sharon (brother-in-law’s girlfriend)

I then set up my camera on my tripod outside the café, finding a nice quiet spot to take all the family portraits.

One for the album, with the brothers Eric and David

One with me and David

Attending her graduation ceremony reminded me of my own more than 6 years ago. Here’s a photo of me with David at my mock graduation ceremony in Melbourne. Notice I was in a pair of jeans? I had my formal graduation ceremony in Malaysia in September 2003, so that my parents and brother didn’t have to fly 8 hours down under just for my 30 seconds of fame. Yes, I am that considerate. Technically, when this photo was taken, I haven’t sat for my final papers yet, and there was a possibility that I could not graduate that semester. But because of jaga-muka-punya-pasal, and the fact that I’ve taken these mock graduation pics, I knew I had no choice but to pass all my subjects. And I did, with better than expected results. It was the best feeling in the world.

Exactly a year later, in September 2004, it was David’s turn to graduate. Notice his faculty colour is pink? So girly wei. In fact, there were only 2 guys (including him) in that faculty in his graduating year. That explains the pink. P/S: I had a waist back then too *sobs*

Looking back, all the memories of being in uni made me shed a tear. Those days of having a housemate from hell to living off instant noodles really made me grow up. No more being a cry baby cos mom ain’t gonna be there. No more getting driven around; public transport was the only way to go about. No more slacking cos it’s entirely up to us to work hard and get those grades to graduate.

Gosh, I’m so grown up. I’m gonna be a momma soon!