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Toil
of sleepless nights
Gillian
Gordon, Valedictory
Address 2003
*
The
Chancellor, Vice Chancellor,
*
Honorary
Ministers of Government
*
Excellencies
of the Diplomatic Corp
*
Principals
and Pro-Vice Chancellor
*
Honorary
Graduand
*
Members
of the Graduating Class
*
Colleagues
*
Parents
and Friends
*
Ladies
and Gentlemen
IT
IS indeed an awesome honour and privilege to be
standing here tonight, more so than most instances
as this in fact my first graduation ceremony.
But the honour is not just mine but rather it
belongs to fellow graduates, our families, friends
that have stood by us along the way.
To
the graduating class of 2003 CONGRATULATIONS!
We deserve it! We know what it has taken to get
here. It took a lot!
We
know fully well the toil of sleepless nights filled
with cramming and the completing last minute research
papers. The familiar anxiety of pre-exam jitters
is never far from our minds. We know what it means
to work feverishly against the clock in the hope
of completing the paper before that voice of doom
proclaims. "The exam is over, all pens down, pass
all papers to the front please."
Indeed
this sequence has been the climax of every semester,
the culmination of each course. But the spring
semester of 2003 was different, these exams were
final. And when the last bell rang and the last
call made to lay down our pens was uttered we
breathed a sigh of relief and proclaimed: "it
is finished!" Then came a sense of euphoria and
exhilaration: we did it; we made it, free at last,
free at last thank God Almighty free at last!
But
the euphoria sadly didn't last long, for soon
after the congratulations were over we realised
that completing our course meant leaving the comfortable
behind, leaving the place that we had called home
for the last 3-5 years. And even more frightening
still, we now had to face the unknown. The question
of "Where will I find a job?" "Will I fit in?"
"Will I make a difference or be able to meet my
financial obligations?" All swirled in our minds.
Let
me take you back to another crossroads, another
time of uncertainty. The only difference being
then we knew we knew it all. We were high school,
maybe college graduates; starry eyed and ambitious,
ready to take the university by storm. But we
quickly found out that was not to be so. And in
the first few
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