pomp and circumstance

Last week, another proud Purdue astronaut went on a spacewalk to fix the great old Hubble, and Mark Polansky and David Wolf will be tweeting in orbit next week. And this past weekend, while Giggsy and the guys were wrapping up the race for the title, some 1300 proud boiler engineers launched over Mr. Markov’s arc to move on to the next state after an approximately short 5.1 years of sojourn time here in WL. Symbolic ceremonies are always hassle packed, but I think I like this one, so, maybe I should go to a few more. I was not planning on going at first, but my mom insisted. I think my mom didn’t go to her commencement ceremony when she got her degree, and I doubt that my dad went to any of his, except for his PhD maybe.

shitty iPhone camera

Sorry I don’t have much pictures to show because everybody else were busy with their families, I didn’t hire a professional because I have no money, and because of the recent swine flu hit, everybody seemed to prefer to keep their distance. Heck, we were even told not to shake hands on stage, just a simple hat tap was allowed. Man, this pig flu is annoying. And i should've really gone with the flops and shorts instead.

Anyways, it sure feels good to get this part of life done with. Honestly, I never thought I was going to make it this far. Talking about going to a tough program, this is where your best hasn’t been and never will be good enough (unless you’re one of those geniuses who gets a 90% when the class average is 35%); I got my first C the first semester my freshman year, and the first D the first semester my sophomore year. 2 of my first matsaleh friends switched to management school the second semester our freshmen year and a couple of our Malaysian friends got kicked out of school a couple of semesters in. So, to say that the past 4 years have been fun wouldn’t be that accurate, but it was really humbling (well, there’s nothing more humbling than having your 1st semester GPA telling you “You’re not really that smart enough to be here Mr.!!!!” right in your face). But Alhamdulillah, I’m just happy I managed to get through this.

Ok, this is the bell tower. It is a very well known fact that it is very hard to get out of here on time with the paper, that they have this legend. There’s a seal under the bell tower, and it is said to be cursed, and any student who walks across the seal will not graduate in four years. So, it is practical enough to see these engineering nerds take the longer path (walking around the tower), instead of the shortest one (walking under and through it), because the practice is much more feasible. By the way, I think I can ask for something very expensive from my dad since I manage to graduate before turning 22, it’s just this thing we had when I was younger.

As for the ceremony itself, I think everyone enjoyed the speeches and the music. Everything was simply fantastic. But I can’t help myself from thinking on how penat it is to put on a smile like that through all the whole 4 sessions in all the 3 days, madam president, you’re the best!!!!

So, now what? I should go seek for the self, seek for some enlightenment. Maybe I should pack up some Tolstoy’s and see what I might find in Alaska. Or I should go see the Dalai Lama and see what this orang-biasa has to say. Or I should join a Pondok school, and get that part of the self filled in a bit. Or maybe you people can donate me some money, so I can go on a 1 month trip across Europe. Or maybe, I should just stop thinking………

Ahhhh… it feels good to wake up and having to think of nothing (for a while at least, carpe diem as the imam and Robin Williams would say). By the way, thank you to those who came in the morning in place of the family, haha…. And thanks for the presents (people get colognes for graduation? And I’m still trying to figure out how to get this one humongous chocolate block down my stomach)

And as for the farewell parties, you just can’t beat the feast, Mick, a guy I knew from football, threw out; we were served with 2 whole roasted lambs Saudi style, just like the one Anthony Bourdain had, it was awesome. And Japanese with the Koreans was great, and the one in Cactus was OK I guess, but I left early.


We should go fishing.



Durden T., BSIE

-bum in training-