After 6 years of studying around different jobs, getting married and having children, as well as some extremely traumatic and upsetting times, I finally completed my BA(Hons) Social Sciences (Geography) degree with the Open University earlier this year! Not only that, but I passed it with First-class Honours. On Friday last week, I got to celebrate at a graduation ceremony in Brighton surrounded by my supportive family who really made the day extra special!
Heading to Brighton
From where I live in Kent, there were two OU ceremony venues that would take a similar amount of time for me to get to: The Barbican in London and Brighton Dome. I had a look at the venues online and thought about what else there is to do in the area and decided I’d prefer to graduate in Brighton.
As the Brighton ceremonies were on a Friday, it took a bit of extra organisation, including waking up extra early to collect my 85 year old Nan, take the children to breakfast club and head straight down to Brighton. We chose the morning ceremony as we wanted to be able to take photos outside in daylight. Thankfully, the M25 and M23 were kind to us. As such, we arrived with a decent amount of time to register, visit the OU Students Association stall and get some professional photos taken before going to the hall ahead of the 11am ceremony.
The Ceremony
While we waited, we had music played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra‘s brass quintet, including music from The Addams Family and Wallace and Gromit. The former was particularly fun as everyone clicked along and it helped settle my nerves a lot better than a more traditional composition like Tchaikovsky or Mozart would have.
Following a short speech, video and the ceremony being declared open, the graduates started ascending upon the stage. The ceremony lasted about an hour and a half, with each graduate being clapped for and cheered as they crossed the stage and shook hands with the presiding officer (who I believe was Baroness Lane-Fox?) I didn’t have too long to wait, which I was glad about as it meant there was less time to be anxious about it!
I’d read online that some alumni had regretted rushing across the stage and not taking it in. So before I crossed, I took a deep breath and truly lived in the moment as I crossed and turned to make a heart shape to share the love. Mostly with my family, but also with everyone in the room. I then returned to my seat to do a LOT more clapping, my arms and hands hurt by the end and my face hurt from smiling so much at everyone’s joy and success!
Celebratory drinks
After taking part in the graduates processing out of the hall, I collected my celebratory glass of prosecco and waited for my family to join me with their drinks too. I was confused wondering where my Mum was when I saw the rest of my family, but this turned to excitement when she suddenly appeared from the crowd and presented me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers! It was lovely to chat and reflect on everything.
More photography
I hadn’t been able to have a professional photo taken with my parents as they arrived close to the ceremony time, so after their drinks were finished we headed off to take them, as I was assured I could. However, as we went to head to photography a rather surly woman told us that it was already closed. We were stressed! After speaking to someone else, we found out that it was 3 minutes before the photographers went on their break and they quickly ushered us there. Annoyingly, there had not been any communication that photography was due to close.
As such, it was quite a flustering experience having this photo taken despite my photographer being really lovely. When we left the photography suite, we saw the rest of my family looking stressed downstairs as they were being asked to leave. I’d wanted a photo with The Open University sign downstairs and my Dad offered to take one very quickly before we caught up with the others. Ms. Surly came over again to tell us it was time to leave, to which I responded that we were just taking a quick photo and then we were going to leave. Her response was “Well you must be very quick then”. We would have already been done and gone if it hadn’t been for this interaction and she put a really bitter taste on the day.
Leaving the venue
Brighton Dome had been a beautiful venue for graduation, but the lack of communication about when things were happening was a little lacking. It’s a busy day with lots going on so it’s difficult to keep track of time. A little information in a friendly manner would go a long way. It felt like half an hour between the ceremony and leaving wasn’t quite long enough, particularly if you hadn’t been able to arrive right at the beginning and/or had guests that arrived later. I didn’t have time to take all the photos that I’d wanted to as it’s such a beautiful venue and as we were leaving a couple of members of staff also approached me in a flap about returning my academic dress ( which I had bought!)
After Brighton Dome
I was in a bit of a bad mood about the churlishness of staff as we left, but made a decision to not let them ruin my day. After all, I’d persevered and worked hard for 6 years for this day. Soon, I was back to feeling elated with my achievements. As we took photos with The Royal Pavilion as a backdrop, many people passed us by smiling and congratulating me. It was really lovely!
Upon my request, we headed to Brighton Palace Pier where we ate sandwiches overlooking the sea and played on the 2p machines. We managed to win quite a few things from them too!
Following a stop at Costa for tea, we made our way back to the gardens by The Royal Pavilion as I remembered that I’d not done the traditional mortarboard throw. While one of my friends had told me I’d need lots of bobby pins and safety pins for graduation, they had neglected to tell me how tricky it is (or perhaps it was just me!) The first few times, I managed to throw it straight over my head, almost hitting my Mum and Nan who were behind me. I got the hand of it in the end though! Well, kind of!
It was beginning to get dark at this point and we were all a bit hungry so we made our way to our dinner reservation at Bill’s where my family gave me cards and presents and we shared a meal together. It was a wonderful way to end the day. I’d love to do it all again…but I guess I’ll have to wait until I do my Masters! (Unfortunately this isn’t something I can currently do with my current life circumstances, but I really want to study further in the future).