Graduated :D !

So it's finally official. I graduated in february, but I now have my diploma :). It's one of the reasons why I haven't blogged as much the last couple of weeks. Other than my graduation I've also been busy with the Viva Las Vega's Food Festival and, well... work. It's not a great job and just a summer job, but at least it pays some bills. It's very hard work and I have to get up early for it, so by the time I get home I'm exhausted. But now that I'm officialy graduated, who knows, I might have better luck finding a job I actually studied for.

Celebrating

In all the job searching and other work, as well as having my parents, sisters and my sisters fiancé over for lunch, I completely forgot how big this actually is. I knew there would be a small ceremony with a couple of other graduates and of course some professors would be there, but I've been so busy that I totally forgot to be nervous. My luck was actually that I didn't have to defend my thesis. Also, I had been graduated on paper since February, so I didn't make it into a very big deal. My family coming over for lunch was a bigger deal at the moment, because we have workers in our house who are building an extra room. My job was to clean everything for my family as well as making sure I had enough room for everyone. And it totally worked out. I had to borrow an extra chair, but other than that it was a lot of fun. It was also my Dad's birthday, so I gave him my presents during lunch. I think sharing this day with family and friends is really the way it should be. They were there for me during all my hard work and problems and cramm sessions (?). After lunch we went to the city (we had some time to kill) and shopped a little. Then we went to where the graduation ceremony was being held. There we would meet one of my best friends and my uncle, who both got me flowers :). We catched up and took some pictures. Oh, and did I mention it was a beautiful day? It really was wonderful! Of course in all my distraction I forgot that I was supposed to wear something fancy. With it being a sunny and warm day and my family coming over, I was wearing short jeans and a top. Not exactly graduation clothing and it's probably the only thing I would change about that day if I could :P.

Kind words

The ceremony began with a nice introduction by one of my professors. The ceremony was also in small groups, so we could bring our family and friends. Our group consisted of four other graduates and I was fourth (it's a last name thing... what else?). I was actually a little bit surprised that I wasn't last. One by one we were being called up there. First the mentor (or if he/she couldn't make it, one of the professors present) would read/give a speech he/she wrote for the graduate which told something about that persons character, studies and of course thesis. In some cases also something extra: one of the graduates also found a job, another one got a boyfriend out of her internship - always fun. During this speech the graduate had to sit in a chair, while of course family or friends would walk around taking pictures. After the speech was finished we had to go from one chair to another and sign our diploma - another picture moment, shake hands and we got a bag with a present, a list of our grades and something to keep our diploma safe.  

My turn: I really love my family and they even cheered for me when my name was called out (it made me think of one of those moments in Gilmore Girls, haha). Unfortunatly my own mentor couldn't be there, but he did write a laudatum which I was kinda nervous about. You never know what someone is going to say about you. His really was a treat! He talked about good qualities, my internship (me working overtime) and my interest, such as social media and fan culture. He even brought up my being a fan of Buffy. And once again my family (especially my sisters I believe) couldn't keep quiet and said something like 'she still is'. Anyway, my fandom also is what brought my attention to the subject of my thesis and that's why he mentioned it. It was a really funny, entertaining and personal speech, which added to my happiness of the day. One thing that totally made me blush is that he called me a 'doctor'. It just sounds so cool! As of that moment I am now a Master of the Arts, Film and Television Studies :D. 

After everyone got their diploma, the professor also spoke to the guests, because he knows how much support they must have given the graduates and he is so right about that. They deserve some credit too!

Afterwards I went to the professors, because I really liked to have the written speech. I also spoke to him about Buffy. Years ago he was my professor and I mentioned that I am a massive Buffyfan. He then told me that he didn't 'get' it or the fans, so now I wanted to talk about it again. He said that he still didn't get it, though he's warming up to it. He even told me that he used one episode 'the one in which they don't talk' ('Hush') in one of his classes. I really love that and I even told him something like 'well, there you go. Wisdom comes with age'. Yep, it was pretty awesome.

Cocktails

After the ceremony we went to the 'reception area' and I was congratulated by everyone officially and I got my flowers. Afterwards we walked my friend to the bus stop and me and my family went to Hemingway's to get a drink and celebrate. First I ordered tea cos my uncle was buying, but I did feel like celebrating so... My uncle bought me my first cocktail :P. And I wasn't the only one. My sister, her fiancé and my uncle all had a cocktail. I really liked it. It's something extra to remember this day by. We did have to drink fast though, because we had reservations for dinner. We went to this asian/tapas place and it was absolutely delicious. They had lots of little 'tapas' to choose from, like meat, fish and/or veggie so there was something for everyone. At dinner I also wanted to thank everyone, because I care a lot about my family and it was amazing that they were all there. It was a Friday afternoon, so they had to take the day off and that hasn't always been easy in the past. Of course, when I said this to my family, I got comments from them about 'how much I must have been drinken' or 'how easily I get drunk'. Well, what are families for right?

Now the real world can begin

Well, sort of. Like I said, I've been looking for a job for months. I kinda have been living in the real world since then, worrying about finding a job to pay the bills and maybe even save something so I can go on a nice vacation or something. Part of me still wants to be a kid and have nothing to worry about, but silly things. Part of me actually loves looking forward to having a job and my own life where I am totally self sufficient. For months I have been sitting at home writing letters and it's good to have summer job now so I can be active again, useful. But of course I much rather have a (dream) job, writing about films and such. Let's hope I'll get there soon enough ;-). At least this day - my graduation day - was a wonderful one I got to enjoy without thinking about all this stuff and just celebrating with the people I love.

SOG-ging

I'm from the Netherlands and here we have this thing called 'SOG' which stands for 'Study-Avoiding-Behaviour'. When you're doing it, you would be 'sogging'. So that's kinda what I've been doing. When I started this blog my intention was to put something up here like every week or so. And I think it kinda translates to this as well. Because I have been slacking here a bit as well. The honest reason? I couldn't decide what to write about! There's so much, so many movies I would like to share with you, so many shows. So many experiences. But you have to start somewhere, so here's me rambling on...

I'm writing my thesis now and it's actually coming along very well, so I don't really feel bad about it. It's just that I reached the chapter where I did a little audience research and it's so much work to put in to it. It doesn't help that I haven't done this a lot either. So I keep getting distracted. I have watched a short series that I bought a while ago and hadn't seen yet. Which I can recommend to anyone btw. It's Australian and it's called 'Return to Eden'. My mother once showed us this when we were younger, so I guess it's a little nostalgic for me as well. But I still like it. It's very well written and there's definate tension. I also love to look at the fashion of that time! I also (finally) finished watching 'The L Word', which I started with a looooooong time ago, because friends liked it. And I have to say, that the final season was really good. Other than that, I watch/follow a lot of shows, which I also try to keep up with weekly. I like to keep updated, so I read and watch the news, the only thing I haven't done in a while is reading. And I truly miss that. But I keep saying, that once I finish my thesis, I will have time for all of that. For going to the gym again, reading, and writing. Cos I love to write my own stories and I just started with another one today. I only wrote about one page, but it's enough to keep me happy and motivated. So that's a lot of sogging. But that isn't all. One way to make it less 'bad' is by doing something useful. So I did the groceries, cooking and all that housework. I did the laundry, but it still means I'm not getting any work done on my thesis. Which I really would like to finish by the end of November. Now in my defense, I also had a cold this week. Luckily it's almost totally gone now, but it means that my writing was a bit off. And that also helps to inspire sogging. But of course, these are all very bad excuses. Because when something needs to get done, you just need to pull yourself together and do it!

So here's a bit of a lesson in this very interesting blog (cough!) for whoever reads it: Excuses will always be just that, excuses. It's another way of saying that you did or didn't do something for some reason, that doens't cover it. We can always make as many excuses as we like but it doesn't change the fact that the deed is done. Excuses are usually made when you or someone else thinks it is necessary to apologize in some way. So you already know that something is wrong with the way it was handled. Right? Well, I guess that's just my opinion. At least that's what I always think to myself when I hear myself making excuses again. It does help me to think about my actions and hopefully stop the use for excuses. But like this blog proves, I also have my weaker moments.

This blog took a totally different turn than I intended, but for now it's time to start writing again... On my thesis I mean. And that is exactly what I'm going to do, without any excuses to be made ;).