IIUM's 30th Convocation Ceremony p/s KJ was here!

Not that I was excited to see him or what. But since everyone had been raving about how awesome it is that KJ joined in the convocation ceremony to deliver to scrolls to us, and that our batch is the first and only undergraduate batch who received the scrolls from him, and that our friends from other programmes were jealous of us muahahaha, I guess KJ coming to the convocation ceremony is quite a significant deal after all. 

All right, I was wrong about 2 things:

1. We weren't the first undergraduates who received the scrolls that day. Students from Kulliyyah of ICT had that honour in the morning, receiving them from the HRH The Sultan of Pahang
2. Dato' Seri Dr Rais Yatim wasn't with us. It was only YB Tuan Haji Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (lol this was stated on the TV screen in the CAC Hall)

The day before, on the 10th of October 2014, my family and I went to UIA Gombak to meet my brother Syafiq there. He had been entrusted with the task of collecting my convocation robe on my behalf. 

I was very excited to see the pretty, fragrant, freshly laundered(dry-cleaned) turquoise robe with white embroidery along its sleeves and front. Plus the mortarboard with IIUM logo engraved on piece of metal fastened at its tassels!

Cream hood for the Pharmacy Programme. Never underestimate the power of the Cream-coloured hood, until you see the icky yellow(according to Jem) or orange hoods (sorry!!!) 

Among the presentable colours of the hoods are black (for Law programme), Dark red/Maroon (for Engineering), silver(forgot for what), gold (Islamic finance I guess) and of course....CREAM!!!! (Drug dealing programme-legal)

You were also given an invitation card for your parents/guardians to enter the procession hall (only 2 people can enter) together with a multimedia card with your name on it to be swiped when you were on stage. 

Invitation card and multimedia smart card

So on that day, we went to IIUM Gombak earlier to get our batch pictures taken. Then, ready to perform the Zuhur prayer and gather at the assembly place by 1.30 pm. 

credit for this photo goes to Akram

Oh God, it was such a havoc over there. The guy in charge had to personally come and call out our names one by one to arrange us into our respective rows and seat numbers. 

We also took pictures! Oh, you couldn't bring your handbag into the procession hall. But you can sneak in your handphone into the quite large pocket of your hood. You'll know when you see it haha. 

We were the first to enter the hall, two people in a row, walking along the red carpet, with the camera zooming into our faces, and we turned to the right and left sides of the hall in an orderly manner, walked and took our seats at the back of the hall.

Credit for this picture goes to Kak Radhi :) 

After all the graduands had entered and took their seats in the hall, it was time for the VVIPs and VIPs consisting of the Rector, the Professors, Deans, Lecturers and ahemm.. Mr Minister of Youth and Sports to enter the hall. 

Oh, I love it when the soothing and melodious Qasidah 'Ya Rabbi Bil Mustafa' was being played/or recited? when our honourable guests entered the hall. 

Emerged KJ, all tall and gallant in the IIUM convocation attire, walking to the stage together with other honourable guests. Some of the guys took this chance to shake hands with him. 

Everyone, I mean almost everyone was excited. Hahaha. 

First, we sang our beloved national anthem 'Negaraku' and also...our most beloved university's song, 'Leading the Way'. There were lyrics on the screen and they showed KJ constantly looking at the screen on his left to read the lyrics and sang the song together with us. 

I love these parts of the song where everyone had been singing with gusto aka the chorus part. 

Together, we make the world a better place,

Forever, expand the culture of Iqra',

IIUM is to realize, the meaning of Rahmatan lil Alamin (mercy to all mankind)

I do not mean to be biased. But I've listened to and sang to USM and UITM songs before (when joining in inter-university programmes) but IIUM's song is the best, hands down!

And oh, on each seat, there was a convocation programme book. 

So I flipped through the book, looking at those esteemed award and prize winners, excellent in both academic and co-curricular. Oklah, I wasn't that excellent but the mere thought of having a star next to my name is good enough, hahaha. 

Oh, what's that? A star? 

It's a kind of recognition IIUM had given us for all the efforts we've put into our studies. 

So yeah, one star for Upper 2nd Class Honours with above 3.0 CGPA while 2 stars for First Class Honours with above 3.6 CGPA

Note: 

First Class Honours: CGPA >/= 3.6 (with 2 stars) 

Upper Second Class Honours: CGPA >/= 2.80-3.59 (3.00-3.59 with one star) 

Lower Second Class Honours: CGPA>/= 2.00-2.79

I flipped through the book and saw that for other courses there were quite many students (as many as 5) who got the 2 stars and majority of the batch got one star. 

Whereas for us drug dealers, only one student out of 99 (including seniors) achieved a first class honours with a CGPA of more than 3.6, while 43 students (11 guys and 32 girls) got one star with CGPA ranging from 3.00 to 3.59. Mind you it is really difficult to maintain our CGPAs within that range, what's with up to 11 subjects per semester *shudder*. 

But heyyy who cares about stars we're all going to receive our scrolls from KJ lololol. Alhamdulillah for everything. :) 

Okay, back to the convocation. A speech by the rector, a speech by KJ, then the commencement of the convocation ceremony. As we were at the back, we only managed to clearly see the whole thing through the television screen. 

credit for this photo goes to Miss Liyana Banyamin xD 

There were some unprecedented funny moments whereby some of the graduands took selfies with KJ on the stage while receiving the scrolls! Hahaha. Some even looked straight at the camera and smiled. It's supposed to be a candid moment, when you received your scroll. 

Soon, after 2 intermissions, it was finally our turn. Oh man... we were so nervous. I was nervous. Last minute preparations of straightening and pulling our robes to the correct position, pinning the mortarboard to our tudung and wahhh now it's our turn!

I walked up the stage and saw the Dean of Kulliyyah of Pharmacy. She smiled at me. I smiled back nervously. .I looked to the front and soon it was my turn. I gave the multimedia card to the person in charge. The MC called out my name. 

I walked to that spot, my eyes looking down. I held the green file /scroll tht was to be handed to me and looked up for a second or two, KJ smiling at me and saying 'Tahniah!' . I smiled and said 'Thank you!', turned and walked away. 

And when I looked at the picture the next day, I was flummoxed. What a weird shot!!! My bro asked 'Kakak malu dekat KJ ke?' and I responded 'No laa!' Why la the photographer had chosen to take the photo at this moment... 

Oh anyway, after I got my scroll, I went back to my seat to look at my friends accepting the scrolls from KJ and a classmate of ours made us laughed with her courage and tenacity!

Fearless Dibah selfie-ing with KJ (and the Prof behind) hahaha..

Credit for this photo goes to Miss Adibah Mazlan. xD

Soon after everyone had finished accepting the scrolls. The award winners for each programme were announced. For our class, Aina the First Class student got the overall best student, Amiirah the Band 6 cum my best emceeing partner got the best student for academic (her CGPA is next to Aina's) and Kak Timi comel got the best student for co-curricular!!! I am immensely proud of them!!!! :D

Iira then delivered the valedictory speech. She had asked for my help regarding the speech a few days before and she had voiced her worry about not being able to deliver it perfectly with some emotions like what she had been expected to do. 

Iira in action! 

But she did great!!!! There was an emotional moment when her voice croaked when she mentioned about her parents huhu...  anyway, weRx9-ians cheered for her at the back! 

Convocation ceremony was finally over! (For that day), and soon after the guests of honour left the hall, we scattered around and scrambled for the exit door, lol. So much for graduated students with degrees. 

By then it was already raining so  most of us just went back home without taking any pictures with friends or lecturers *sobs*

The next day, we came to UIA again to take pictures. Syafiq's convocation ceremony was on the 13th and we were going home on that same day so let's take pictures while we were still free (the day before, on the 12th). Among the pictures taken: 

In front of the 'famous' Keris Fountain, hahaha. 

And oh, we went to FRIM to take photos. This picture below is one of the photos.

 Not-so-little Blue Riding Hood. 

So I met my childhood friend Jem on the 3rd day of convocation and also one of my good friends since school Malizah, and we took pictures together. I returned my convocation attire, got my scroll and convocation was finally over! 

And oh, flowers and teddy bears!!! Thank you mom, dad and Malizah!!! :D

Dean (I named this Teddy 'Dean' as in 'Dekan', and that it's also a real name geddit?) presented me with beautiful roses!!! 

Mom's Handwriting

Malizah's 

The back of the car was filled with bouquets of flowers-mine and Syafiq's. 

So, end of convocation ceremony. Wah, can't believe it. Finally done with my 4 years of studies! So many things had happened throughout these 4 years; emotional breakdowns, stress, bad experiences but amidst all those bitter memories, I'm glad I had my shares of sweet ones too, especially when you share them with your friends who are always sticking by you side, supporting you and assuring/reassuring yourself that you are unique in your own way, and that you have many plus points that should not and could not be compared with others.

All in all, everything that happened was worth it. 

Definitely worth it.