graduation eve

Tomorrow, Jeremy and I are graduating.

I picked up my gown, hood, and trencher last night. I must have chosen a pretty good time, because there were only 3 people in front of me in the line! I tried on the paraphenalia with my brand-new-Stella-Gregg-graduation-dress-kindly-paid-for-by-Mum, and looks good.

The graduation parade was today, but I was relegated to watching from a 6th floor office. I am on work placement this (and next) week, and they had already given me all day off tomorrow; I felt too sheepish to ask for another half day off. But their offices are on the corner of Lambton Quay and Willis Street, so I had a pretty good view of my fellow graduates.. and the Scottish pipe band. Plus, the other factor that went against my parading was that there would have been noone to watch me walk down the streets. Jeremy has been in Auckland this week for a 'professional development' course, and my visiting family don't arrive until tonight. I had (foolishly, it seems) assumed that the parade would take place on the same day as the ceremony, but not so for the Humanities and Social Sciences graduates. Aeroplane tickets were booked, but couldn't be changed once the graduation week programme was sent out. Anyway, I think I just wanted to walk in the parade to get some big bunches of flowers that everyone seems to get given.

Nothing much else to report. The aforementioned work placement is going fantastically; I could really see myself working there. I've been working on heaps of different publications; doing things like proofreading, editing, writing case studies, and being involved in various other tasks. I think I've been really lucky to get such great experience in just four days. Even better, everyone gives good feedback on the work I've done. Not just, "Oh thanks, that's great", but "Thanks for doing that. You've really done well on this bit, but you could have done blah blah blah here, which would make it a bit more readable." Or something like that. I marked up two pages of document and was told my proofreading marks were very clear and logical. High praise for a junior editor!!

I know this is the sort of work I would love to do. Example: Yesterday, I asked of a colleague: "So, Alex. Is the house style to hypenate 'hip hop'?" I mean, how great would it be to have a jobs where you get to discuss words in such delicious detail?! Definitely in my top five. Probably straight after "reading books and getting paid for it."