I finally "formally" graduated last April 22. Well technically, I graduated during the first semester and was only able to march now. I originally didn't plan on attending the ceremony (it's not as if I'm a laude or anything) but certain people convinced me otherwise. You only graduate from college once, right?
So there. My boss let me go home to attend the graduation even though we had activities scheduled for Earth Day (also on April 22) because it's my graduation. It's not something like a birthday which I can celebrate a few days after. However, I almost got bumped off my April 21 afternoon flight because some guests in Miniloc wanted to rebook their AM departure for a PM one. Gyahh!!! Hindi pwede!!! Good thing that a) they decided not to push through with it and/or b) Doc Raymond agreed to get transfered to the AM flight instead of me. If B is the case, I owe him majorly. Will ask him when I get back to the resort.
My mom bought my dress. The first one was uhm... frilly. She got me another one when she found out that the required length was longer than the first one. Phew. The one I wore is more formal and something I can use for my cousin's wedding this November. She also lent me her pearls to wear. I felt like a kid playing dress-up with her mom's jewelry, especially when she wanted me to wear her huge South Sea pearl earrings. I swear, those earrings were bigger than my earlobes! She made me wear my grandmother's earrings after I told her hers were too big. Btw, one of the reasons why I never buy my own jewelry (aside from earrings) is because 1) my ninang keep on giving me jewelry anyway and she has excellent taste, and 2) I can borrow my mom's.
On the day itself, I was panicking a little because we left the house late. Was saved by the fact that all UP events start late. I was even able to take part in the camwhoring. Wehehe.
Presenting... the super seniors of Batch 2002!
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/caramelmocha/graduation/grad07.jpg)
Front (L-R): James, Vicky, me, Ezra, Ivy, Jameez, Lillian, Hedwig, and Darlene
Back (L-R): Toy, Justin, and Beh
The ones missing from this pic are Rhea (she was way back in the line), Jayson Sy (same with Rhea), and Borg (he didn't join the ceremony).
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/caramelmocha/graduation/resIMG_0870.jpg)
This is actually my favorite picture of the lot. Snitched from Toy.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/caramelmocha/graduation/grad12.jpg)
Sir John Yason AKA "Dreamboat Prof", who also happens to be an inactive member of TPTS and TPON. He tells me that he's actually one of the founding members of TPON. Will have to confirm that. I have to admit that he doesn't look as good in the photo as he usually does but that's because A) I was too close so the pic is out of focus (I was beside him during the whole thing because he was the last of the MS grads and I was the first of the BS grads), and B) it's a bad angle. His good looks weren't displayed to full effect :p
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/caramelmocha/graduation/grad13.jpg)
James, one of my thesismates. He's one of the guys I spent 2 weeks in Palawan with and co-sufferer whenever our adviser told us to revise our theses yet again. He's now Dr. Garcia, Sir Neil, and Ma'am Brenda's research assistant and will be taking up MS Biology this June. I wish him all the best, although I have to admit that I'm supremely jealous.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/caramelmocha/graduation/grad18.jpg)
Jayson Parinas, one of my favorite people in IB. He's a batch lower than me but I got to know him when we were co-applicants for ABM, MBS, and OPTICS. Bwahaha ang dami. Ang sarap nitong kausap.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/caramelmocha/graduation/grad16.jpg)
And finally, Mr. Alexander Edward Sy Dy AKA my Bio crush. I freely admit it now because it's water under the bridge. Wehehe. This soft-spoken Cebuano speaks 5 languages, graduated magna cum laude, won the BPI Science Award for 2007, and won the Leticia Shahani Award for best research paper. Plus he's a sci-fi (BSG!), fantasy, and comics geek. Kept trying to get him to attend the NWA cons but he always said he was too busy with school. Oh well. We kept teasing him after the
15-year old BS Physics summa cum laude gave her speech because she kept on mentioning him and his thesis. The two of them swapped numbers afterwards and Alex asked me to take their picture together. Will be emailing him the pic later.
Even more pictures are up
here. Will be uploading more pictures once I manage to steal them from other people's Multiply pages :p
Attending the ceremony made me realize how much I missed and will miss the Bio people. I also kept thinking that if graduating with 13 other batchmates was fun, how more so if I managed to graduate on time with most of them? I honestly don't regret not graduating on time because if I did, that would have meant taking off for parts unknown AKA Palawan right after graduation. I wouldn't have gotten together with
stompboxer and wouldn't have gotten to know the rest of the super seniors better. I'm more than happy with the way things turned out.