It’s Dec 12, 2012, or short for 12-12-12. This site has quite a history in reporting repeating-digit dates. On Mar 3, 2003, I wrote:
“So today is 03-03-03, very interesting…”
And on Apr 4, 2004, I wrote:
“I said last year that I would be expecting April 4, 2004 because it is of a special and wonderful number… So, i am expecting May 5 next year.”
Those were the earliest days I started to pay attention to the bits and pieces of my life. Up to this moment, I still have no idea what these repeating digits have to do with my life — perhaps none. But some says 12-12-12 will be the last repeating-digit date we’ll see in our entire life — i.e. assuming we don’t live until 1-1-2101 (01-01-01), but who knows? — so this day is kind of special.
Today I’d like to talk about graduation. We had our graduation ceremony last Wednesday. If Christmas is a festive season for all, November to January should be a festive season for graduates. It’s also a period I hate, as a graduate myself. Why? I hate seeing big groups of people doing stupid things. Whenever I go to those “sacred” places for taking graduation photos, I’m often pissed by the fact that so many people are there taking photos as well. You cannot but include them in the background, as if you’re a collective self in harmony all celebrating the joy of graduation together. If you really want to exclude them, perhaps the only thing you can do is get an ultra fast lens and take a close up of yourself so that everyone is blurred beyond the shallow depth of field.
Well, so I’m pleased to have taken pictures in my favourite scene at HKU, Eliot Hall, ahead of anyone else. I like Eliot Hall more than I like the MB (that’s why the committee photo of The Apollonian was taken there). But apart from that experience, taking graduation photo is a pain in the ass.
And then there was the graduation ceremony. As much as a wedding ceremony does not signify the whole marriage (it’s just the beginning), graduation moments (photo taking, the ceremony) do not signify graduation itself. I graduated five months ago already, as I received my final exam results and my temporary certificate. I have already celebrated back then, so why all the fuss? Taking photos in grad gown? Attending the ceremony, and taking even more photos there? Graduation means we’ve finished a long long journey of learning, during which we mature and learn to do things with sophistication. Dressed in graduation gown and taking group photos with a noisy crowd, often in stupid poses, is an insult to the identity we’ve earned, a damage to recognition we’ve gained. No matter what, I’m a person who enjoys privacy, so I’m not going to join my fellows celebrating crazily for graduation. I’m glad I graduated, that’s it.
Not too long ago I read a quote on facebook: Finally I graduated. I have to thank my family and friends, and whoever invented wikipedia and copy & paste. Did I require that for graduation? I’m glad I didn’t. To all those graduates who refused to be mediocre, you have my most sincere respect. Congratulations!