My Graduation | Experience & Advice

Hey guys!

It was my Graduation on Wednesday (13th January 2016) so I thought I would would take a step back from my usual beauty posts and tell you about my experience of Graduation and the advice I would give others before their Graduation.

If I'm being completely honest I had a very negative view/opinion on Graduation, I really didn't want to go and I didn't see the point in the ceremony. Even more so because my Graduation was in January and I finished my degree the previous May - to me this seemed pointless and I thought it should have been in the Summer. Another reason why I didn't want to go was because I felt under pressure from family. I can't really explain what I felt pressured to do, (apart from going to Graduation), because my family weren't pressuring me about anything specific, but I think they had expectations of Graduation and they were making it into a bigger deal than it was. I think I was just worried about disappointing them and that Graduation wouldn't live up to their expectations. This just caused me to worry and stress even more than I should have.

Aside from me having a negative outlook on Graduation I was also worried about the normal things you would expect - like what to wear, what shoes to wear, going up on stage, falling over on stage etc. So with this and everything else I was worrying about, you can probably tell I was not looking forward to my Graduation.

When the day actually came it was nowhere near the disaster I had been envisioning, my imagination can get a bit carried away sometimes so in the days leading up to Graduation I was imagining all of the things that could possibly go wrong! However on the day I woke up with a more positive outlook because I realised there was nothing I could do at that point. What will be will be. I know that sounds a bit cliche but it's true! I knew there was no way of getting out of it so I decided to make the best of the situation. Nothing very eventful happened, the ceremony was a bit dragged out in my opinion - there were quite a few people who did really long speeches who I'd never even seen before and the majority of what they were saying had nothing to do with the graduates in that ceremony. As well as the speeches the graduates walked across the stage as their names were called. My name was called nearer the end of the ceremony so I had butterflies about going on stage for the majority of it. I didn't fall over!! This is what I was most worried about and what I think most people are worried about - just so you know no one fell over in my ceremony. The ceremony lasted about an hour and a half and there is nothing else to say about the ceremony itself, it was just your typical (slightly boring during the speeches) Graduation ceremony.  

It's been a few days now since my Graduation and I can safely say I'm so glad I went, although I still think Graduation is made into a bigger deal than it actually is. I mean technically you graduate when you finish your degree, not because you're dressed like you attend Hogwarts and have walked across a stage and shook someone's hand. Although I must say it was quite nice imagining I went to Hogwarts because I'm still waiting for my letter haha! I enjoyed my day and I really didn't think I would, (it did help that there was a Starbucks next to the arena the ceremony was in!), my family also enjoyed it and I was worried they wouldn't so that took some pressure off as well.

There is some advice I would give myself if I could go back in time or that I would give to anyone else before their Graduation:-

1. Don't worry too much about what to wear!
I worried so much about this and looking back I really didn't need to. The amount of dresses I ordered and tried on was ridiculous. But I was worrying for nothing because there was such a variety in what people had chosen to wear, you can pretty much wear whatever you like as long as you look smart. Don't worry about colours or patterns just make sure you're wearing something that you're comfortable in because that's the most important thing.  

2. Wear shoes you can walk in!
Being a girl the shoe situation is probably what we stress about most - heels or flats? This really is a dilemma because most people can walk better in flats but heels look better. I decided very early on that I was going to wear flats because for me wearing heels would be too risky. Now this is not me telling you to ditch the heels and wear flats because if you feel confident walking in heels and they're comfortable, then by all means wear heels. But there were so many girls wearing heels far too high and heels they couldn't walk in, it was just painful watching them walk across the stage! They were drawing attention to themselves, (not good attention), because everyone watching was thinking any minute they're going to fall and you don't want that kind of attention!

3. Change the size of the cap/gown if it doesn't fit
When you go and collect your cap and gown someone essentially dresses you - puts the cap and gown on for you. I had to change the size of my cap because the one I ordered was too big and the woman dressing me was the one who advised me to change it, so this piece of advice wasn't relevant to me. However I noticed from watching the people sat around me and on stage that there were quite a few caps that didn't fit properly, i.e too big and it kept falling off. There were a couple of people I saw walking across the stage in a weird position to keep their cap from falling off of their head. Clearly these people didn't have someone as nice as the woman who dressed me to tell them to change the size of the cap. So if your cap doesn't fit, change it because you don't need the worry of your cap falling off on stage added to the other stresses involved with Graduation day.

4. Don't be negative!
Now I know I was very negative before Graduation, but my point here is to not be negative on the actual day. It's only going to ruin your day and what's the point in that? In the ceremony there was a girl sat next to me, I didn't know her but I recognised her from my lectures, and throughout the whole ceremony she was huffing and puffing and was muttering under her breath about how she didn't want to be there, it was boring, when will it end, and there was more but I'm sure you get the picture. I really don't know what she was trying to achieve, she was already sat in the arena so there was no getting out the Graduation and she certainly wasn't going to bring me down. Personally I think she was only making herself look stupid and the only person she was affecting was herself.

5. Go to Graduation!
Last but not least, go to Graduation! In the end I'm so glad that I went, although being truthful the only reason I went is because my family would have literally killed me if I didn't go. If it wasn't for my family I don't think I would have gone and definitely would have regretted it. Most people only graduate once so Graduation really is a once in a lifetime experience, an experience that you can't get back once it's passed. I know I'm being cheesy but it's true! You won't regret going, even if you don't enjoy yourself, it's more likely you'll regret not going.

I'm sorry if this post was a bit too serious and I don't want you thinking I'm a really negative person. I am normally a positive person but when it comes to things like being on stage, being in front of people or having any kind of attention on me it gives me really bad anxiety.

Thank you so much for reading and next week we'll be back to the usual light hearted beauty posts!

Danielle xoxo