Jag har tagit studenten! I have graduated!
Had an early morning and woke up at 0600 to shower and prepare myself. I took on my suit and travelled to Aros Congress Center for breakfeast and the ending ceremony. At 1030 we had the photography at the Ottar Stairs, where we were to run out an hour later. But first the speech by the Managing Director of Personell of ABB AB, Lena Eliasson, and the hand-out of examination diplomas. My friend got a scolarship of 10.000 SEK (1 100 €). The school’s headmaster thanked us for three years, and we all took farewell of the school.
The band started to play Studentsången at 1130 and all 56 graduating students ran out to meet their families. We sang Studentsången and greeted the crowd, which consisted of a few hundred people and then jumped on the big red truck that was to take us around the town as a part of the traditional celebrations.
Onboard the truck there was a great amount of noise, we had our own DJ on board playing Swedish summer classics and two really large loudspeakers were aimed forward onto the people on the street. All graduating classes travel around in birch-clad waggons or trucks the same time and at the same place, and since you try to convince everyone that you are the best graduating class you try to be as loud as possible and write texts all over the trucks. Our truck had the text “Vi är vad era föräldrar önskar att ni vore” written in large on the right side. In English it reads “We are what your parents wish you were”, which reflects a bit of what we think of the other schools in town.
After two hours of truckriding we returned back to Ottar for home transportation. The 9th of June was the hottest day so far in 2006, so there was no lack of heat in the sun.
I took goodbye from my friends and returned home to meet my relatives and friends. From 1430 to 1730 we had a lot of guests at home who congratulated me on my celebration, and we ate a lot of food. It was a joyful event.
I got a lot of presents, including an offshore sailing jacket for Elida, a knife set, a frying pan, an 1.0 GB USB memory, a USB fan, a lot of good books, some money, a teapot, a few mugs, and a lot of household items (which will be needed in 14 months when I move to my own apartment in Linköping)
So the graduation weekend has been great, I have met a lot of friends and relatives and it will be a weekend I will remember all life. Now only 5,5 years until university graduation 