“Enjoy your moment...” Jude Davies smiled to me, as I
shuffled up next to him on the Cathedral stage.
Remember this moment, I said in the back of my mind; remember this
moment and don’t trip.
Tuesday 14th October was my Graduation day and
let me tell you, it’s been a long time coming. Whilst I enjoyed my prom, back
in Secondary school, and I had fun – Graduation was my prom. I was far more
excited to go into the Cathedral that day than I was to take a bus ride to The
Weald Of Kent golf club.
As a congregation, we stood with our shaking hands listening
intently to the man whispering our instructions – where to go, how many steps
to take, shake with your right hand, don’t forget to smile, don’t panic, don’t
trip. With a group of more mature ladies before me in the graduation ceremony,
I felt a little more at ease – I’d get to see them do it first so no excuses to
screw up. My beautiful friend, who my boyfriend still refers to as Dolphin, was
before me on the list too so the excitement within me bubbled for her as she
walked to Jude and then as her name was called, to Professor Dame Mary Fagan
(DCVO) at centre stage for a quick handshake before being then ushered off
stage left to receive her Diploma packet.
Tentatively I stepped forward wincing as the gentleman at
the stand called out my name, my full name; Alexandra Guinevere Brookman (pipe
down). Right, left, right, left and I heard something I didn’t expect. A little
cheer came from the back of the longest nave in the UK and I smiled – my
parents, my grandmother and my partner were faces in the crowd that I couldn’t
quite make out, but I knew they were there – I could hear them.
“It seems you brought your fan club with you.” Dame Mary
Fagan said, shaking my hand.
“It seems so.” I nodded, positively glowing.
Having returned to my seat, my eyes welled up a little. As
they read off our names, I couldn’t have been more proud. Proud of my friends
for getting through everything that they did, proud of myself for giving the
best that I could and proud of my family for supporting me and travelling all
the miles to see me graduate.
Getting tickets for my family was a pain – I know some of
you will roll your eyes at this, but my parents are divorced and both respectively
remarried so that’s four parents before I even think about anyone else. I asked
for four which was the maximum ticket allowance for my graduation slot, and
told my Mum and Dad that they would be invited (given that I was guaranteed
two). When four came in the mail a few weeks before grad, my heart sunk – I
wanted my partner to be there, but what about my parents partners, or even my
grandmother? Long story short, I sunk to a new level and emailed the graduation
organisers playing the ‘divorced’ parents card to see if I could weedle any
more tickets – eventually, after no reply, I decided that I was being silly.
I’m sure there were other people who didn’t get as many tickets as I did, so I
just needed to count myself lucky and make do – luckily both parents understood
that I would invite my partner and my grandmother, along with my Mum and Dad to
keep things happy and neutral in both camps.
After the ceremony and an emotional ‘clap-out’ from the
staff and dignitaries in attendance, I managed to snap a few pictures with
friends who graduated the same day, and then it was off to lunch. Returning to
River Cottage for a post-graduation meal was the best choice I think I could
have made, given the difference in tastes across my family. Having been to
River Cottage in it’s opening week, I was pleased to return again but on this
occasion with a new menu and at a different time – River Cottage feels
different in the day time, in a really nice way. The atmosphere is still
sophisticated, clean and happy but there’s a relaxing chilled-out vibe
spreading across both floors. They were busy, but definitely not packed –
possibly just a standard mid-week lunch time. I didn’t manage to catch our servers’
name, but she was delightfully laid back and more than happy to engage in
banter with my Father who thinks he’s just hilarious.
If there was one thing less than brilliant at River Cottage,
it would be that there bar was super-understocked. Maybe they just got hit with
a big rush and hadn’t anticipated it, but it did create an awkward repetition
of “Oh I’m sorry, we’re actually out of that” and “Oh, we’re also out of that
too...” Still – River Cottage shines in all other aspects of hospitality.
Waiting three weeks for pictures to come through the post
from Official Graduate Photographer Tempest is going to be the longest wait of
my life, just because I know there are so many other family members who would
love to see them and needless to says selfies with my friends probably just
don’t cut it. It’s a week after graduation now and the pictures online have
just about stopped surfacing, but then again it was Grad Ball on Friday so I’m
in the midst of another surge of photos – some flattering, some not so. Another night of dancing like we knew our lives would never be the same.
My friends and I have come so far in, what has turned out to
be, three very short years. We’ve traded our BOP outfits for our Grad Hats and
we threw them into the air with what can only be described as cliché happiness
and panic that they might land in a puddle. Although it was raining on the day,
that didn’t matter too much - it was annoying before hand, but after it was
quite refreshing. The nerves and stress got to me so much, for some reason,
that as soon as I was on my own and walking into the Cathedral the sight of my
my ex-housemate Demi and my ex-coursemate Sarah turned me to jelly and I
couldn’t stop the tears. I’m not even too sure what happened, but full blown
ugly-tears happened and that was before the ceremony!
(Even in the term
ex-housemate/coursemate makes me feel weird.)
As each person I knew took to the stage, received various
screams and shouts from the audience, I couldn’t help but flick mentally
through the pictures I had tacked on my university walls of my freshman halls
and every room since then – so many different faces painted as so many
different jungle animals, not to mention toy story characters as well as
bloodied and beaten ‘emergency’ cases and multiple Halloweens to boot. Over the three years my friends and I have
forged a team of rebels and bohemians who can take on pretty much anything and
I am so proud of us for coming out the other side of University a better group
people. Now I get to look back at the photos surfacing online from this week of
us in our glad rags holding our heads up like heroes for our parents to take
our pictures.
I distinctly remember looking through the haze of people
milling about in their post-graduation glow to my Gracie, who has achieved more
than any of us this year, and hear her say to her proud Dad who was snapping
away with this fancy DSLR “I just want to go and take pictures with my
friends!” – I took this prompt as my cue to bomb her photo.
Speaking of parents, I was reintroduced to Demi’s parents
who have always been so generous and lovely, to Sarah’s mother who smiled at me
and shouted “Oh, the famous Lex!” and also Brett’s Mum who told me I was “a
very brave girl, indeed” for choosing to wear the shoes that I did. The shoes
were actually a last minute decision; black pair of lace heels that everyone
told me were too high for the occasion – I stand by my decision and I rocked
it.
As I draw this mammoth post to an end, I know this is going
to be an incredibly morbid thought but it has to be said. If the time comes when you and I aren’t close
anymore, not like we are now, please know how important you all are to me. Let’s tell our children about all the silly
things we did with all the crazy people and show them the pictures to prove it.
Thank you to all my friends, my family and everyone in between.
Although what we’ve had this week may have been the end of
an era, it was the start of an age.
