Leong Yi Yang: My graduation

After some si pek troublesome processes of registering myself for my own convocation on 23rd August 2008, I finally can go on stage and receive my degree certificate after a 5 years wait.

I woke up at 5.30a.m. that morning to prepare myself for the convocation ceremony, brought my parents to have breakfast at the nearest McDonald’s at 6.30a.m. and arrived at UNITEN Bangi, sorry, UNITEN Putrajaya at 7.30a.m. sharp.

I thought I was already late when I finally arrived at the registration counter around 7.45a.m. after the some stupid guards asked me to park my car a million kilometers away from the hall, but all the graduates only arrived after 8a.m., way behind the schedule, typical Malaysians.

The coordinator had a hard time asking all of us to register ourselves and queue up to enter the hall as all of us already started to take photos and chat around. Only after the coordinators became tulan and shouted at us then only all of us started to move into the hall, typical Malaysians.

After entering the hall, the Chancellor of UNITEN arrived and the convocation ceremony started. We sang our national anthem Negaraku and the UNITEN anthem. I don’t know what the name of the UNITEN anthem is, I can only sing according to the lyrics shown from the projectors.

The ceremony kicked off in a truly Malaysian style: Loooooooooong speeches by the VIPs. I think they were trying to make us graduates sleep rather than give us some advices and motivations. Luckily we were allowed to bring in our cell phones and cameras, almost all of us graduates cannot tahan the long speeches and went on to do our own stuff like chatting with each other, text messaging and taking photos. I did all that and I only managed to stay awake for a while only.

The Loooooooooog speeches

After the Loooooooooog speeches, finally its time for the REAL convocation ceremony. Too bad the ceremony was also damn boring. I just sat there watching other people going up to the stage, bowed to the Chancellor, received the certificate, and then going down the stage. After watching a few hundreds of people doing the same thing over and over again, I wished that some people fall down on the stage so that I can have a good laugh.

Finally after a long wait, the coordinators asked our Accounting Degree batch to get ready to go on stage. I was then fully awake and had a rush of adrenalin wanted to go on stage badly to receive a piece of paper that I’ve been waiting for 5 years.

Half an hour later my name was announced, I walked on stage with an average speed, trying not to fall down or else I’ll be the hot topic of UNITEN for the next 1 billion years. I walked towards a marked spot where I had to bow to the Chancellor, I bowed cin-cai-ly as I don’t want my not-so-tight mortar board to drop. Then I walked towards the Chancellor, shook hand with him, said thank you, received the certificate, turned over and smiled to the camera with a smile that I’ve been practicing for a long time, and then walked down the stage with a relieve that I didn’t mess it up.

I thought I made it perfectly, not until I received my photos the next day…

I smiled stupidly.

Shit.

After I walked down the stage, I was so nervous that I needed to pee. Just as I am going to walk past the door, a coordinator stopped me and said that I am not allowed to go to the toilet.

WTF, where can stop people to go to pee one? I don’t know what their reason is for this but I bet it’s got something to do with keeping the crowd in hall so that they won’t lose face to the VIPs. Luckily I have an exceptionally well-functioned bladder to keep my “yellow tea” in store for more than 5 hours.

I then got back to my place with a tulan face and open the certificate book to check out my own degree certificate.

As I told you, UNITEN is a very “FINE” university.

My "degree certificate"

The certificate I received from the hands of the Chancellor was actually a warning letter where UNITEN will FINE us if we return our academic robe late. The original degree certificate will only be given to us after we returned the academic robe in a good condition.

More detail and precise than accounting standards, don't play play

The warning letter stated very clearly the FINE structure where we’ll be fined RM5 per day for returning the academic robe late. I think it’s even clearer and easily understood than the accounting textbooks I used to study.