Graduation Days
Over six years ago, in 2007 I had just finished a 12-month University Preparation Course in English Literature at the University of Sydney. I had begun the course because I enjoy reading literary texts and I thought it might engage and occupy me, certainly not with any thoughts of entering university. On my final essay my lecturer wrote ‘…you are truly ready for university Elizabeth,’ and she wished me every success in my future academic pursuits.
I had so enjoyed the mental stimulation and close reading involved in the course that I decided on a whim to apply for university entrance. Sydney only offered its Arts classes during the day so I applied to Macquarie, which has more flexible study options.
On the strength of a written application I was accepted into a Bachelor of Arts at Macquarie University to commence in early 2008. I hadn’t done any study before the prep course since 1979 when I dropped out of the final year of teaching to go follow my wandering heart and travel. When I returned for good at the end of 1983, I was broke and engaged. How that all went is another story that most of you know but needless to say I wasn’t about to start my teaching degree again from scratch as I would have had to back in those days.
A Bachelor of Arts gave me the freedom to choose units that I was interested in. With no prescribed units I was free to supplement my English subjects with Philosophy, Linguistics, Gender Studies and Culture Studies along with units in Creative Writing. My courses ranged from ‘Approaches to English Literature’ and ‘Mind, Meaning and Metaphysics’ to ‘Naughty Boys and Bad Girls: Gender and Discipline at Home and at School’ and ‘Literary Journalism’. I never missed a tutorial except one when I went to UK last year for Ian’s Mum’s funeral and I never handed in an assignment late – (frankly I was never prepared to give away 10% of my marks!
If you ask the people around me, they would say that I found the due dates and the exam prep very stressful, and that is true, but the enjoyment and engagement was great too. I enjoyed the wide reading and the vigorous discussion. I applied to do a Masters of Research full time this year and next and I was accepted but when it came to timetabling, the flexibility that drew me to Macquarie in the first place worked against me as I realised I would be travelling to campus 3 to 4 evenings a week. So for now my ‘higher learning’ is over or maybe just on the back burner.
It has taken a bit of adjustment to the fact that I don’t have any readings to do and no assignment deadlines to consider when I look at social engagements but that adjustment is just about complete.
So, I did it! I completed my degree and got to don the cap and gown.
I was more excited than I should have been, took the opportunity to buy a new dress and new shoes (you girls will understand) and sat with all the other dorks looking like a congregation of crows in funny hats. Our University Chancellor, Michael Egan erudite and inspirational. Our Occasional Speaker was boring and forgettable.
I remembered to doff my cap to the Registrar and didn’t knock it off in the process. I didn’t trip and I remembered to smile for the handshake photo.
The after ceremony refreshments included champagne which I discovered is impossible to drink from a flute glass in a trencher unless you keep topping up the glass.
After all the excitement I reluctantly gave back the gown with its fabulous gold hood and the trencher hired for the occasion and with Ian, Adelaide, Celeste and Raph we drove to the beautiful Waterfront Café at Church Point on spectacular Pittwater in northern Sydney for a celebratory lunch.
Ian gave me a gorgeous Lamy retractable fountain pen with a lovely inscription engraved thereon. Adelaide gave me the sweetest card depicting Winnie the Pooh in Graduation garb, that she had designed and hand painted and some beautiful ruby earrings together with a graduation bear.
I felt a splendid sense of achievement. I am not renowned for sticking at difficult endeavours and when I look back on those six years sometimes I wonder how I managed to keep it happening.
In the years it has taken me to achieve my degree I have lost two of my best and oldest friends to cancer, I separated from and then divorced my husband of 25 years, my mother suffered a devastating stroke and had to be accommodated in a nursing home where she died eighteen months later. I fell head-over-heals in love and moved out of home into a unit then back home again, I have endured two HSC years and various other child related dramas and then remarried and lost my Dad. All of life’s major stresses, condensed into six years; death, divorce, parental woes and relocation. I have renewed faith in my own ability to handle the ‘stuff’ that life throws my way.
My next challenge? I’m not sure at this stage but I do want to continue writing; what, when and where I haven’t fathomed yet but stay tuned and let’s see what turns up.
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When Adelaide left school, she was pretty clear about what she wanted to do. She was going to be a film maker. She had made several short films, entered a few film competitions including Tropfest and begun a well-regarded film making course at a technical institute. She completed the Certificate and Diploma courses over the next two years and realised that a lifetime devoted to film making was a working life spent with periods of intense creativity and long stretches making out-of-work creative types, cups of coffee while you waited for the next job to come along. Some time during this phase while she worked part time at the same school where I worked as a teacher’s aide at a school for children with autism, she decided that what she really wanted to do was teach.
So, she began a four-year Education Degree at the University of Technology Sydney. UTS offer a degree in International studies which you can do concurrent with another degree. This involves the learning of a language and the hardship :) of living abroad for twelve months. Adelaide always wanted to learn French and spent the fourth year of her now five-year double degree living in beautiful Neuchatel in French speaking Switzerland. I visited her there during the northern summer of 2012 and envied the delightful surrounds and her gorgeous Swiss and French flatmates. Her French flourished and so did a new relationship with a local boy, Raphael.
Adelaide returned to Australia in February 2013 to complete the final year. Raph followed for a holiday in June and while here applied to study at ICMS, a School of Management in local Manly. He was successful in his application and returned just three weeks later to begin his degree in September. He lives with us and has been a lovely addition to our household.
So Adelaide graduated in April this year, just two weeks after my graduation. She got to wear two colours to denote her achievement of a double degree. Her Chancellor was boring and forgettable, her Occasional speaker erudite and inspirational. She, too remembered to doff her cap and didn’t knock it off, she remained on her feet and smiled for the handshake photo.
I was so proud in the audience with Celeste and Ian that I thought I might jump up and cheer. (I didn’t you’ll be pleased to hear).
Poor Raph was there to see her regaled in her beautiful robe and hat but then had to dash to attend an exam and had to miss the actual ceremony.
We drove from the ceremony at the city Campus of UTS back to Manly where we indulged in some share platters and wine at Adelaide’s favourite bar, Manly Wine, while we waited for Raph to join us. We had a lovely afternoon celebrating Adelaide’s fine achievement.
She received a teaching job offer at the school were she was an aide even before her degree was complete. She had that contract renewed this year and teaches a gorgeous class in a satellite setting in a large Department of Education school that is not far from home as the crow flies but a bit of a trek in Sydney traffic.
She puts in extraordinary hours of preparation but is already achieving great things with her young charges. I visited her class one day to fill in when she was off sick and was so impressed with the organisation she has brought to the room and the calm atmosphere of learning that she has given the class. Yes I’m a proud Mum but she is a born teacher and we all know the world needs more of them.
Dominic was supposed to have graduated his Music Production degree about now too but that has been delayed. Celeste is soon to begin a degree in Media, Communication and Culture at my old Alma mater, Macquarie University, so there are more graduations to attend in the future. It seems like yesterday that I considered myself past any such undertaking but then I saw a 93 year old lady conferred with a PhD just the other day so it seems the will to undertake further education lies inside anyone, of any age who just wants to do it and is prepared to work for it.
