Convocation was quite a fun day, except that I had to get up at 5:30, having only slept at 2, just so that I can shower, and get properly groomed for the event. It’s sad that I have to get up earlier than I would if I were to go to work.

Of course, with every weekday, the highways are jammed solid. I was smart enough to choose not to take the shift to drive to Waterloo. So my couragous dad volunteered, while I peacefully slept with my iPod. Haha.

Anyways, Wednesday was perhaps the hottest day of the year so far, and of course, we were all sweating to death underneath our gowns and shirts. It’s quite fun being in a sauna and to continue to smile pleasantly.

It’s been a long tradition for us ES kids to be sharing the ceremony with the AHS kids, since we are the school’s smallest faculties. Because of this, I was blessed to share the ceremony with hotties like Jo and Mike. (Good fellas Pat and Wallace also came to cheer us on.) Our very amazing valedictory address, which was very witty and meaningful, was also from an AHS student.

The ceremony itself was by far the most efficiently convocation I have witnessed to date— and I have been to a handful of them ranging from U of T, Ryerson, and York. Instead of calling each person individually, Waterloo decided that students are sent up in three’s. Wow, this almost conveyor belt process must’ve been invented by a Waterloo Engineer. It’s so brilliant.

Because we’re up there in three’s, you tend to gage your time up there to how fast the other two are holding up. It puts pressure for people just move on, and I like that.

Sure it gives me less time to interact with the people sitting on stage, but it is a very small price to pay compared to having to sit there bored waiting for your own turn.

The name annoucement system is also quite state of the art. The presenter annouces the names from a computer screen, which shows a live video feed off stage which displays the name cards accordingly. I thought it was very neat. Our stats professor, Jean Andrey, presented our names, and I climbed up the stage with good ol’ Loreen and Lincoln. For a session with over 600 graduates, it took exactly two hours.

There has been reports about this year’s convocation events being in high demand, since this is the year the double cohort leaves the system. At Waterloo, I didn’t really notice too much overcrowding, though I did hear that other sessions were much more busier than ours. There were a total of eight sessions this year— two each day from Wednesday to Saturday. The number of sessions remained unchanged from last year, but up from five the year before. I guess this was because so many students fast tracked to avoid the double cohort.

The ceremonies are divided very interestingly, and it really shows the different enrolment levels across campus. While ES and AHS share ceremonies, Computer Science alone can occupy its own session.

On to the ring ceremony. It was quite neat. I was surprised to be greeted with actual lunch food, from delicious deli wraps, salads, dessert and coffee. Oh man, it was good. It was also great to get all the planners together in one room, since it’s so hard to catch people down for pictures once we have all dispersed from the PAC. Though I found the need to restrain myself from my usual behaviour, since there were so many parents in the room. I was lucky enough to meet Paolo and Martina’s parents. Paolo’s dad was literally like Paolo— he has the same goofiness that we’ve grown to love from P.

All the remaining pics are published on Facebook. They can be viewed without logging in, so take a look!

Pictures from Convocation and Ring Ceremony 2007 - [facebook.com]
All you need to know about convocation - [uwaterloo.ca]
Ring Ceremony - [uwaterloo.ca]