The Wedding

Chapter 11: The Graduation

Why was everyone so excited about graduation? It was just a time when you received your academic degree after four to five years trying to survive in a faculty. We have graduation songs, graduation party, graduation cloak, graduation decoration, and many things. Well, yeah, I realized that this was another moment we had in our life cycle. It deserved to be cheered on.

Since I was not the party type, I left everything to Tessa. She had been nagging me the whole week asking about the clothes (we had to wear a kebaya), the cloak, the make-up and hair-do team, the photographer, the payments, and the... other 100 things about graduation. I was not that excited cause I was having another job to do, doing solo again with no partner to consult with, and had no time to think about graduation. I even planned to wear jeans and t-shirt under the cloak, which made Tessa pinched me. Then, she sounded like my mom.

"Graduation is like a marriage, it only happen once in your lifetime..."

"You can get divorce and remarry." She threw me with a doll when I said this.

"You can't have the same feeling like you had at its first time..."

"I can continue my study and graduate again!" This time she wasn't so nice anymore, she threw me with a pen and it hit my arm. 

Tessa opened a paper bag and grabbed a small box from inside the bag. 

"I can never understand why people always overreacting about graduation. I mean, nowadays people celebrated kindergarten graduation, primary graduation, junior high graduation. It feels like graduation is not something special anymore," I tried to explain to her.

"Ohh gosh..." she opened the box and looked mesmerized. It was a blue heart-shaped necklace. It was big and sparkly and looked expensive.

"Oh my gosh... That's beautiful!" I screamed too. "From boyfriend?"

Tessa nodded and smiled ear toe ear. She quickly wear it and admired the diamond through her phone's mirror. 

"It must be expensive," I whispered. 

"Yes, you have such a sharp eyes, Danica," Tessa agreed. "Morgan saved his entire money he gets from the cruise to buy this. This is even more expensive than our engagement ring! He bought it from a small jewelry shop in Monaco when they anchored there. He said he remembered me when saw this necklace. He's so adorable!"

I nodded, "A 1,25 carat heart cut diamond range from $6500-$8500 dollar." I showed her the same necklace from the internet. "He surely gave the entire money for you. You should marry that man, girl!"

"Yes, yes. Of course! We'll marry!"

I smiled. I was happy if my friend was. I left Tessa with all graduation and boyfriend thing, went to my room, and surrounded myself with my works.

On the day of the graduation, all things were well prepared. Tessa did a great job. She woke me up at 6 with her freshly made Hong Kong fried rice and scrambled egg ready in our kitchen. She's about to get married and she had them all. Cooking skill? Checked. Organizing skill? Checked. Brain and beauty? Checked. Financial management skill? Checked. I consider her as a goddess cause she had them all.

We're ready at the hall 30 minutes before the graduation ceremony started. The hall was full of people and I could see some familiar faces. There were students from different departments who I met when we had general lecture subjects. We took pictures, congratulated each other and wished for the best.

I almost cried when the ceremony started. This was it. After 4 years studying, we finally closed another chapter of our live. During the ceremony, my brain flashed back to the first day joining this university. To my classmates who were graduated at different time. To the rooms and buildings. To the events and activities. To the lecturers and classes. To all things I experienced in these past four years. We were graduated!