Graduation

Just this Thursday gone, and after first moving to Leeds to start my adventure four years ago, the day of my graduation finally came – 20th July 2017. This meant an early morning for the Briggs family, as we all grumpily stirred from our beds at about 6am in order to pick up my tickets and get my gown on ready for the ceremony starting at 9:30am sharp.

After briefly catching up with everyone as they enrobed and ran about to take photos, I soon found myself out in the queue to enter the Great Hall with fellow graduands. My parents found a seat near the back, and after a few embarrassing photos which they tottered up to the front to take, our tutors entered and the ceremony began.

One by one we were called onto stage to receive our certificate and a congratulations from one of the key professors in the School of Design, before returning to our seats and eventually being applauded out of the main entrance to the Grand Hall. Degrees in hand, it was time for another few photos in between the spells of patchy rain which didn’t manage to dampen our day one bit – we were all in giddy high spirits and I noted how the folder with my degree certificate in it was the most expensive umbrella I’d ever used!

There were a tonne of photos taken but there’s only one real serious one which I am happy with – I opted not to bother with professional photography of the day but I think this one taken by my dad is probably much better than anything I’d have had taken in a studio.

As I said, the rain seemed to only heighten our jovial spirit, and hence I present to you a few photos of us all goofing around and using the hoods of our gowns as actual hoods. Hogwarts connotations aside (we all look like we’re in Slytherin, everyone kept noting), they actually worked pretty well to keep our hair dry…

Pretty soon we all had to go our own separate ways, with people having lunches and all sorts of things to attend to, and so me and my dad wandered off to the library to take one final portrait in the beautiful setting of the Brotherton Library – I figured I should have one where I look somewhat scholarly or something…

Is that Draco Malfoy in the Brotherton Library?

After disrobing and trundling back to our car through yet more rain, we eventually checked into our hotel for the night and headed out for some snacks, before making our way to Ox Club for a delicious dinner. After this we went out for cocktails as a family, but I managed to catch half an hour with the rest of the gang before heading back to the hotel to sleep after a long day.

It was a really lovely day, with an atmosphere of celebration and good fun not dampened at all by the sub-par weather which had been threatening to make us all miserable. It was pretty amazing to see such a huge formal event run like clockwork, and it felt like a lovely closing to these past four years which have taken me halfway around the globe and then some!

In the meantime I have updated my CV with my degree result, and am currently working my way through more photos from my trip to Asturias which began with my last blog post about my time in the wonderful city of Oviedo. Stay tuned!