It has been nearly two months since I finished my final exams, and about three weeks since I crossed the stage and received my diploma. It has been almost five years since I moved into residence at UBC and embarked on my undergraduate journey.
The actual “graduation” happened very quickly – I was scurried across the stage and had some photos taken in rapid succession, with more being quickly taken by family after the ceremony. However, the process of getting to the stage has been longer and is what made the brief hat-and-gown stroll so significant.
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1st year: I returned home from residence the first night I was to stay there, and skipped my Arts student frosh event. My friends came to visit me and made me feel like not all hope was lost in this new place that I was meant to call a home. I went to my first event and someone said “hi” to me and I said “hi” back and we chatted and he introduced me to someone else who said “hi” and we became friends. Confused and lost, I attended “Imagine UBC” with my “M.U.G. Leader” guide and witnessed a large and daunting place be just that but with life pulsing through it with swarms of colour-coded students bustling about. A really amazing 8 months of my young adult life was beginning.
