Celebrate Good Times

Hello!

This week, I officially added two more letters after my name, after walking the stage and graduating with my MA.

Yay me! 😊

We had a long day of travel from London to Hull. By ‘we’ I mean me, Mr E, the children, my mum and my brother.

The first stop on the way to my mum’s was the supermarket to pick up snacks for the train. I left Older Miss in charge and it turns out that wasn’t as sensible as I thought as we somehow ended up with two bags worth of food (even though I’d rejected the twelve pack of crisps)…

Back at my mum’s, I asked, ‘Are you sure we need all of this?’ peering into the bags and seeing what we could get rid of. She insisted it would all be eaten. Mr E added a bunch of bananas to a bag that was fit to burst. I took them out and said we seriously needed to reduce the contents by the time we reached Hull.

I’d told my brother we were leaving my mum’s at 8.45am. He turned up at 9am so I was a little bit concerned about catching the train. I needn’t have worried as we got to Kings Cross in plenty of time, our platform not even showing on the board yet. Mr E decided to go off to buy his breakfast and of course, wasn’t back when our platform did appear. Cue me calling him several times and him finally answering with a mouthful of food saying ‘I’m coming!’

Getting through the ticket barriers with e-tickets could be a whole blog post on its own so, I’m just going to bypass that and say we got on the train.

As we made our way to our seats, there were two girls sat at one of our tables.

‘We’ve reserved these seats’ I said.

They rolled their eyes and went to sit at the table opposite.

‘We’ve reserved these ones too.’

One of them huffed and they sat in the seats directly behind us. It made us smile when five minutes later a couple came along and pointed out they were sat in their seats and the girls had to move again… If only there were some way of knowing which seats are reserved…

We settled in for our journey with Bubs seeming to take my comment about reducing the snack bag very seriously. He asked for something to eat every five minutes and gulped his way through a 750ml bottle of water.

Yet even Bubs snacking of epic proportions didn’t help as we still had one full bag. When we arrived at the bag check the guy looked at it and shook his head.

‘I don’t think you can bring that in.’

‘It’s our snacks for the train.’ OM said with her brightest smile. The stern face of the bag checker melted and he called over his boss.

‘This young lady has breakfast, lunch and dinner for the train.’

‘And breakfast for tomorrow too by the looks of it!’ said the boss. He told her to follow him and the bag was left with reception while I fought my way through the sea of graduates to get my gown and hat.

A smiley man in a bright yellow t-shirt was my dresser, adjusting my hood to sit perfectly over my shoulders and placing my cap on my head. A quick check in the mirror and I was handed my programme and sent back downstairs.

A few photos with my family and then the doors to the auditorium were opened. I’d managed to get on the booking as soon as it became live so the family were seated quite near the front.

I sat on the other side of the room near the back, our class being second to last in the running order.

There was a lot of pomp involved. A string quartet, a procession of lecturers ending with the a woman carrying a golden staff-type-thingy (think Penny Mordant at the coronation but it wasn’t a sword) ahead of the chancellor.

We were all standing during this procession and were only permitted to sit once the chancellor said so. But pretty much as soon as we’d sat down, someone began calling names. I’d expected a load of speeches first so I was quite happy to get on with it.

There were over 350 students graduating that day. I tried to keep up with the clapping as everyone should be celebrated but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a tiny bit bored. Just a tiny bit.

Anyhoo, soon the rows got closer and closer and then – we were up!

I waited by the stage, my family noticing me, waving and taking pics. I edged closer as each name ahead of me was called and then I was at the top of the stage and it was my name being called.

My family went crazy! 😊

I can’t even tell you what it meant, how full my heart was, to turn and see all of them on their feet cheering me on.

It was a walk across a stage in a funny jacket and hat. But it was a walk that spoke of my faith in God that kept me going; faith that allowed me to take the step in the first place to believe I could complete a Masters. It was a walk for my family who loved and supported me through it. It was my moment of celebration and I loved every moment.

When the ceremony ended after another procession, graduands were told to leave through one exit and guests through the other. Imagine my surprise when our exit led directly outside into the pouring rain! On top of that, there were barriers up that meant we had to walk away from the building before we could get back in again!

Back through the crowd I went to locate my crew. More hugs, more photos and my face aching, but I couldn’t stop smiling.

On the train back, the grown-ups dozed while the children snacked (yes, we got the bag back!) and chatted.

If you’re thinking about re-training or starting afresh – do it.

No, it’s not easy but seriously, it’s so worth it.

Speak soon xx