Graduation

There are not that many days in one’s life where it is allowable to wallow in one’s success. Yesterday was such a time. I was admitted to the Graduate Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health at Massey University: my third graduation ceremony and third institution, so am getting slightly confused as to which of the three is officially my alma mater – I guess it’s probably Victoria University of Wellington where I did my Bachelor of Arts all those years ago...

But back to Massey. This has been a tougher qualification than either the BA or the Bachelor of Ministries (BMin) – although both of these were degrees, I was a full-time student and had less distractions (I won’t say “none” because I always seemed to have some stuff going on outside of uni!) – with the GDipOSH, I was also holding down a full-time job, married, and our gorgeous small daughter arrived part way through. But I’m glad I persevered!

Yesterday was a bit of an odd day in some ways. Being an extramural (distance) student, I didn’t have the connection with the other students graduating – with my degrees, I knew a fair number of the others, and for the BMin I knew everyone very well as it was a smaller group, we had all lived on-campus, and gone through most of the same courses together. This time, there were only three Diplomates actually present (quite a lot more graduated in absentia) and everyone else in the ceremony was a total stranger. But the two others that were there were both people I had studied with, although that in itself is a bit odd as we all did the qualification at different rates! It took me five years (with a 16-month break in the middle when our daughter was tiny), and my wonderful husband and my parents were also there.

After graduation, I also had to attend the College of Business prizegiving as well, so it was a fairly busy day. Some of the great bits were having a good chat with one of my lecturers – more a friend and colleague, after all these years! – and the parade after Graduation. The Regent Theatre in Palmerston North where it was held is one of those lovely old theatres with gorgeous stone and woodwork - usually used for live theatre, it was a great place for a graduation (rather prettier than the Michael Fowler Centre where I graduated from Victoria!) and felt very intimate.