sun and smiles
On Thursday, my aunt had her convocation at UofT. She received her Ph.D in Theory and Policy Studies in Education from OISE. My sister and I took the TTC down to UT's convocation hall. We bought a card and wrote in it on the subway. We were both dressed very nicely and when we got there, we saw Jacob and Janson playing frisbee on the field in polos and jeans and i was like, WHAT you guys are making me feel over-dressed! but it was okay because everyone else (i.e. the adults) were dressed nice. We arrived at 2:15 and the ceremony started at 2:30. Janson's family had arrived at like 11 so they had been there for a while. Popo and Uncle Alfred were in the Hall but everyone else (Auntie Ivy, Uncle Donald, Janson's grandparents, Janson, Joshua, Jacob, Vivian, and I) watched the ceremony from tents outside, where they had set up video feeds. So we watched the ceremony and 姨姨 got her diploma (she was like the 10th pair in, SCORE) and then since I needed to go to the police station, I decided to go since 姨姨 was first and we assumed that she'd stay for the rest of the ceremony (of 1000 graduates lol). Vivian, Janson and I went off campus and then Janson got a call saying 姨姨, Popo, and Uncle Alfred had left the hall and were coming out, so we went back to the tent. Grandma came out and told me how she cried because she was thinking how our grandfather would have loved to see his youngest daughter get her Ph.D but that he couldn't. Even as she was telling me, she started crying again. I felt so overcome with emotion and I kept telling her that I understood and that it was a happy occasion. She kept saying herself that it was a happy event :) We took lots of pictures, in all combinations of people, in front of all sorts of bgs lol. 姨姨 was taking individual shots with her sons, and we were like, where's Joshua? Where's number 2? He's taking a number 2. LOL it was funny. It was really a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful and everyone was happy and smiling and hugging. At 4:30, we went to OISE to eat free food. Janson, Vivian and I had a glass of wine. The food there was amazing! There were spring rolls, sushi, samosas, cheeses, pizza....so GOOD. Because the ceremony had technically not ended yet, we were the only ones there LOL so we ate and ate and then the ceremony ended and other people started coming in. We left at 5:30, me ttc-ing back home, Vivian to school, and the others back uptown for dinner. I went home and straight into the car with my parents to go to dinner with the others. There was traffic so they had only arrived a little before we did. We had an amazing dinner and it was overall a great day. I'm so proud of 姨姨 and so happy for her :) It makes me a little sad that I'm not going to my B.Sc convocation, but at least I'll have my B.Ed one next year :)