<<< budu boy >>>: Convocation Frenzy

Meanwhile, the convocation madness was at its heyday during the simulation in the great hall, when everything seemed clumsy. The Program Co-coordinators were completely unprofessional. It was utterly sloppy. And the tension got accumulated during the rehearsal day. Tentative programs seemed to change every second, so did my MC speech – the finalized version was the seventh! Luckily the MC was not on MC.

By the end of the nerve-cracking rehearsal, the Second IIC Convocation Ceremony seemed a long way to go. The state of unpreparedness was obvious in everybody’s nervous faces. At last, as the Head of PC put it, let God decide the success of this convocation ceremony (how easy!). This hardship made me appreciate those event-management teams who effortlessly organize grand events. Not the least are those who handle ‘live’ programmes on TV – Juara Lagu, Akademi Fantasia, and all that jazz. These people are outstanding.

Back to the madness part, it was funny that the second batch Graduation Dinner 2006 was held the night after the rehearsal day and the very night before the real convocation ceremony. One would wonder why on earth this program suddenly intruded in the middle of wild preparation of the convocation. It extremely tested everybody’s patience. Everybody was terribly exhausted, and imagine, if someone sabotaged the food and everybody got food poisoning, the press would happily declare: Graduands Poisoned: 2nd IIC Convocation Ceremony was Cancelled! But alhamdulillah, that almost didn’t happen. Surprisingly, it was a night to remember, a night to ‘bond’.

Themed glittering black and white, the Graduation Dinner was a total blast. I wasn’t properly dressed since I was in a hurry and just grabbed whatever whitish and blackish and glitteriest in my closet. Late for few minutes, who wouldn’t get excited with the red carpet welcome by the beautiful usherette? Sadly, the food was not that impressive – North Indian cuisine with over-cooked dhal, excessively oily curry chicken, half-cooked rice (sabotage attempt?), really cheap ice cream, just to fulfill the requirements I guess.

Despite the lousy foods, one good thing happened. After years of futile trials, especially during family days, I was finally, randomly, chosen as a lucky winner (‘prom king!’) during the luckiest draw ever – thanks to my lucky James-Bond number, 007. The irony is, that is also the last three numbers of my staff ID. What another lucky coincidence! I was later sleeping that night with a funny mixture of extraordinary excitement and killing nervousness.

The next morning, I woke up at five, feeling so anxious since the speech was yet to be finalized. Confidently though, I put on my best dress, my best hairdo with my best hair gel, and proudly arrived at the great hall at seven, only to realize that I forgot to wear my songkok. Oh Gosh, how could I forget that I am in an Islamic institution? I was later saved by the Head of Robes who spared me with one of her reserved songkoks.

Being the MC, I was given one of the hardest tasks – yes, the Master of Ceremony. Wow! What a great title! By right, I had to be in control of all the ‘slaves’ of the event. Come to think of it, I indeed had the power of peace-making or trouble-making. Well, in this case, the former unbelievably prevailed.

The ceremony started well at 8.30 am. The conferrer was, to my surprise again, Dato’ Dr. Mashitah Ibrahim. The salutation was elaborate and tongue-boggling, I had to split it and share with my beautiful MC-mate. The conferment went too smoothly to be true. I just couldn’t believe that, after 3 hours, my MC partner and I had eloquently pronounced more than 570 names of the graduands. It was a proud and significant moment when I said aloud the names of my ex-students, who previously deemed not to be tailored for graduation, but who were then standing in the procession and receiving the scroll – as successful graduands! It was, at times, moving and unbelievable.

Overall, I think I did a splendid job, except the part when I wrongly adressed Dato' Dr. Mashitah as Yang Berbahagia, instead of Yang Berhormat. Hah, this saluatation was catastrophic. (But again, that was a relatively 'better' mistake compared to last year's classic incident when I accidentally called my own CEO with an altered name. What a shame!)

By the end of the ceremony, it was a miracle. We were two hours in advance of the real tentative program. One thing, it was perfect since it finally ended the excruciating pain so quickly and elegantly. And it was a successful end too, after all the desperate attempts. The other way of looking at it, it reflected the lack of preparation and co-ordination for the unexpected finishing line.

However, the convocation team deserved the biggest round of applause for making the event a reality and a memorable one, in spite of their amateurish skills. It was the day of joyous celebration and everlasting moment for all the beaming graduands. Well done to all graduands! You have made the College proud.

But most importantly, bravo Cekmi, for having Mastered the Ceremony!