My Graduation Day.

Since I last blogged in... May, I have succesfully passed my degree in Media Studies & I am now ABBA (Anella Bennett, B.A), sorry I had to put that in. I was so happy the day I got my results. When the letter came, I got that feeling, where your heart sinks somewhere into your stomach & I really didn't want to open it, even though I knew I'd done well.

My Graduation day was the day before yesterday. I had an image in my head of how it should have been, but it turned out to be very different.

It started out badly the night before. I'd hired out my gown a full month or so ago (which was expensive, £39 just to hire your cap & gown). It also stated on the Bangor University website that we were 'guarenteed' two tickets. I figured that I could probably buy Dave's ticket ON the day - but then I re-checked the website the night before & realised that apparantly we had to purchase the 'guarenteed' two tickets for £12 each as well as any others we wanted. I did try & call the university but all the staff were apparantly away or pregnant, lol.

So anyway, the day came & I woke up early, dreading the whole thing. I never, ever get nervous - but today I was totally freaking out. I think it was the fact that I was so unprepared for it - usually I like to be well prepared for occasions like this. For Dave's Cranfield graduation, I'd arranged my outfit weeks before etc. I got ready & drove to put some diesel in my car, at the station I managed to spill some diesel on my shoes (which are now slighly stained) & also got some all over my hands, which wasn't great. Then as I was driving up a hill, my phone was vibrating & I never normally answer calls in the car but being Graduation day & in a panic I picked it up to read the text. I am guilty of sometimes texting in my car whilst driving - but I put my phone ON the wheel so I am still looking at the road (I don't look at the keyboard to type). But, this time my phone dropped onto my lap, so as I look down to get it, the car in front braked last minute deciding to turn down a road people never usually turn off at. So, I slammed my brakes & because I was wearing heels, they slammed harder than usual & my hazard lights came on automatically - I scared myself to death, lol.

*Above - The dress I wore for my graduation.

Oh it gets worse. When I finally got to Bangor. I figured that the usual car parks would probably be busy & I had read online that we'd probably have to pay to park there & I didn't have any loose change on me. So I decided to park around half a mile away at Paddy's Bar. I got out the car, my heart still somewhere in my stomach & began walking towards the University. As I'm walking down the street, an oldish woman (around 60) is walking towards me, but then stops dead. She was carrying a shopping bag, so I kinda thought she was just stopping to catch her breath. I didn't stare & kept on walking towards her. I looked again & she was still staring at me with her mouth half open. As I walked past, I clearly heard her saying 'Jesus Christ...' along with some muttering straight after. I won't write down what I thought she'd said afterwards because I'm not a 100% sure if that's in fact what she said.

This really bugged me. Part of me felt like running back into the car & going home because I wasn't feeling too confident about graduation anyway, part of me felt like just screaming. I turned around to the woman & told her ''I'm f*cking graduating'' - then I got some dirty looks from two other old people across the street, lol. They no doubt saw me as a young troublemaker who goes around abusing old women. This is so unlike me, I never, ever, ever shout back at anyone, especially older people - but this woman really touched a nerve. I thought afterwards well she must have thought I was walking home from a guys house the morning after or something, but then I thought even then, she shouldn't have opened her mouth. The dress I was wearing (above) wasn't exactly a clubbing dress & I wasn't flashing my underwear or anything! My legs are quite long, so most dresses 'look' shorter on me, but aren't... if you get me. Judge for yourselves, but my mother, Dave & I didn't think this dress was in anyway inappropriate for Graduating. I've realised since losing weight & wearing more dresses/shorts - people in North Wales seem to act like they have never seen a girl wearing such clothes & you either get the perverts whistling/commenting at you or the old women throwing you disgusted looks. One of the reasons I'll be moving away from here one day.

I was so nervous when I got there, everyone else seemed to be with their families & I was all alone, which didn't help me at all, considering the way I was feeling by now. Oh, there was another incident where a girl on my course asked me if I would take a photo of her & her family, which I agreed to do. Then, when her father handed me his camera, he looked at me & just said ''Just push this button here...'' - I noticed he had the exact SLR as me so I told him "You have the exact same camera as me!" he just looked at me expressionless & replied ''Just push that button'' pointing at it again, I told him I knew which one it was because it was the same one as mine (I wasn't sure if he'd heard me) to which he said ''Just push the button'' again, ignoring me. Maybe he was just being paranoid that I was going to break his camera, but I got the impression I was being treated like some dumb blonde that had never used one before.

The actual ceremony itself went great. I didn't fall or anything in my heels, which for me was a success. The camera man who was filming the whole thing for the webcast & DVD seemed to be picking me out of the crowd, so I had to put on a big fake smile - which I should win an Academy Award for. Afterwards when I came out the hall, my heart came back up to its normal place when I spotted Dave! I asked him where my mum & dad were - but then he told me it was just my mum who had made it. My dad had been in hospital the previous week getting another 7ltrs of fluid taken out of him & the people at the hospital had 'run out' of the protein supplement/fluid they were supposed to put back inside him & because of this, he was too weak to come. That was the worst thing about that day, because I was looking forward to having him there to see it. Afterwards, we had some pictures taken (Professional ones) - it was a little weird just Dave, my mother & I but I guess it was better than nothing... Here are a few pictures I got outside.

My mum had to leave to go home, but she insisted that Dave & I should stay there... but when I looked around & saw all my friends with their own families, I just wanted to go home. We went for a meal, just me and Dave at Table Table which was nice then we came home. I bought my dad a DVD of the ceremony (for a stupid price of £22) so that he can at least watch it sometime.

If you have read all of this you deserve a medal for listening to me whine - but it really wasn't the day I had pictured in my head, the family photos, the smiles, the hat throwing and so on. I couldn't wait to get out of my stupid overpriced hat. I promise the next post will be on a more happy note!