Great Speech, Shame About the Cap
Remind me never to arrive back in Singapore on the day of my graduation again.
If I'd returned earlier, I would have attended the rehearsal for my ceremony's proceedings. And I would have realised that bowing too low causes the tassel on one's mortar board to drop to the front, when it should be on the right.
Now, no matter how many people come up to me and say "great speech!" I will only think of the photographs and videos of my tassel dangling over my forehead as I spoke--photos that will persist long after people forget what I said at the podium.
The tragedy is that I was the only speaker in all the ceremonies who did not use notes, which means that I should have been the least likely person to mess up his tassel by looking downwards. But this same point worked against me: because I was too engrossed in remembering my lines, I didn't notice my tassel was waaay out of place.
At the VIP reception after, the Dean came up to me and said "you've raised the bar for valedictorians", by which he could have just as easily referred to big-occasion fashion boo-boos.
Yes, I'm a bitch. But try to see it from my point of view: photo opportunity of a lifetime, foiled forever by the tilt of a head. I should be entitled to some chagrin.
If I'd returned earlier, I would have attended the rehearsal for my ceremony's proceedings. And I would have realised that bowing too low causes the tassel on one's mortar board to drop to the front, when it should be on the right.
Now, no matter how many people come up to me and say "great speech!" I will only think of the photographs and videos of my tassel dangling over my forehead as I spoke--photos that will persist long after people forget what I said at the podium.
The tragedy is that I was the only speaker in all the ceremonies who did not use notes, which means that I should have been the least likely person to mess up his tassel by looking downwards. But this same point worked against me: because I was too engrossed in remembering my lines, I didn't notice my tassel was waaay out of place.
At the VIP reception after, the Dean came up to me and said "you've raised the bar for valedictorians", by which he could have just as easily referred to big-occasion fashion boo-boos.
Yes, I'm a bitch. But try to see it from my point of view: photo opportunity of a lifetime, foiled forever by the tilt of a head. I should be entitled to some chagrin.
posted by The Empty Signifier @ 7/15/2005 03:25:00 am
1 comments
1 Comments:
Look at it this way. You probably won't be delivering another V-speech for another year or two perhaps and during which time, you can practice wearing a madam choo motarboard and looking into the audience. :)
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