Sunday, July 13, 2008

My Lao scholar

My Lao scholar had her commencement / convocation ceremony at Suntec on Saturday. Graduating from SMU, she messaged me to ask whether I could get around to Suntec at about 4.30 pm to take a graduation picture with her family. Unfortunately, I have a Indian Church wedding at 5 pm.

I am immensely proud of her since she is probably the smartest young woman from Laos. If positions in the government are handed out based on meritocracy, she will easily be a minister. I am proud to have contributed a little to her getting a scholarship to finance her studies.

Since I can't make it to the commencement ceremony at Suntec on Saturday, we meet up for tea on Sunday. She mentioned that during the ceremony, the valedictorian (from Information System department) made a speech saying that he got good results because he studied and stayed at SMU everyday, and only went home twice a week.

HAHAHAHA.

All I can say is that he had wasted his time at SMU. Universities' degrees are all useless, regardless whether it is from SMU, NUS or NTU. Your first class degree is as useful as toilet paper the minute you start working. The fact that the idiot actually made such a tactless speech that is totally self-serving shows four years of education is completely wasted on him. If you have the opportunity to say something to your entire cohort of 700 schoolmates and every teaching staff including your Chancellor, why would you say something meaningless which basically translates into "my social life sucks ass and I only got this far because I study through the night like an bookworm on cocaine."

Why? Shouldn't one say something inspirational and memorable like what four years of education had taught your about life? To thank the people which made it all worthwhile; those who become lighthouses in your life, showing you the right way and keeping you out of trouble, and even or those who simply passes through your life like ships in the dark.

What a wasted opportunity,

3 Comments:

Blogger vanilla said...

Ours was meaningful if you could still remember.

And sad.

I actually felt ashamed collecting the scroll.

12:58 AM  
Blogger Captain Obvious said...

I skipped our ceremony. Partly not free and partly because I always wanted to boycott the whole thing.

Why feel ashamed?

1:00 AM  
Blogger vanilla said...

It was about John.

My achievement is a joke when compared to him.

1:02 AM  

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