Allah is always with us in every journey that we go: Graduation Day

13^th march 2007 marked a special occasion for most of the final year students in Republic Polytechnic. Yes, it was our Graduation Ceremony. Alhamdulillah, we are officially a diploma holder. A memorable event kicked off at 2.00pm for the Diploma in Biomedical Sciences, Diploma in Business Computing and Advanced Diploma in Biomedical Sciences. The various diplomas from School of Engineering and Diploma in Information Technology was held earlier at 9.00am the same day.

Graduates in the afternoon session were supposed to report to i-dunno-what-room-is-that-called at 1.00pm. Clad in white tops and dark bottoms, everyone looked so thrilled when asked to put on their graduation gown, let alone the hood which gave us so much trouble. Instructions were given for us to stand at our position which was assigned to us when we first enter the room. We were then ushered to the auditorium where the guests were seated and graduation ceremony was about to start. Waiting patiently for the Guest-of-Honour to come and when the song went off, we knew the guest of honor had arrived. Everyone rose as a sign of respect and there came Dr. Alwis with the “light-touch” (fortunately not torchlight) leading the way to the stage, followed by the principal, a few staff and the Guest-of-Honour. We remained standing as the national anthem (fortunately the national anthem was only half-played but not many people was singing though) was played. Then there was an address by guest speaker, Dr John Lim, CEO of Health Sciences Authority and after which it was the presentation of diplomas. This was the time to get really excited. It took quite sometimes before my row was asked to head to the backstage. Due to the excitement, I didn’t bring along my ez-link card to the backstage for it to be scanned. At the backstage, I saw Rayhan and Tasha and without futher ado, Khairul and I laughed at them and said “haha! Padan muka! Sape suro lambat!” There were quite a number of people at the backstage whose task is to usher cum check our graduation gown attire. You know why? Because the hood is really troublesome plus it keeps falling off from our shoulders without we realizing it. So begedel rite! The backstage people have to keep telling us to check our attire before leaving the backstage. So just before I stepped out of the backstage the person told me “stand behind the yellow line”. I was all blur, looked down and take a step to the back to find where the yellow line is. The person then told me “down there la! Not here. Haiyo! Don’t get too excited la. Later you fall on the stage then you know”. I just laughed and say “Sorry la! You never specify there what.” When my name was called out, I walked up to the middle of the stage where the Guest-of-Honour was standing. While walking, I remembered Khairul said, “eh haram tau salam dia. Dia kan melayu ko ckp jek ngan dier takya salam lah.” Dotz. Khairul tu bobal sng jek! Try la dpt Halimah Yacob jadi Guest-of-Honour. Ko try buat gitu atas stage. Aku nak tgk! Tak malu muka ko nasib ah. Haha! Back to story, after I turned for a snapped, I accidentally knocked against the Guest-of-Honour, Zahidi. (Maaf yer pak! Tak sengaja.) When I walked back to the auditorium through the backstage, I was supposed to search for the ladies but I don’t know why I headed back to the auditorium.

After the academic recession, we headed outside for reception. Yay! Foods! Haha! I filled my stomach with a variety of foods before I was on my gear to take pictures with fellow friends. There were far too many people and I had a hard time looking around trying to search for my friends. Even if I found them, they were busy eating or talking with their parents. So I had to either wait for them to finish eating or forget about taking pictures. That marks the end of the memorable day for us.

To all my beloved friends, 3 years had made us confident as an individual and inculcate some knowledge and moral values in all of us. I wish all of you all the best in your future endeavors. May all of you continue to work hard and hold a successful career in years to come. Do stay in contact okay.