1. You feel VERY cool when you get to collect your cap and gown.
2. And you'll definitely pretend you’re in Harry Potter.
3. But you will never be quite sure if you're wearing your mortarboard properly.
4. You will not recognise a large number of the other students who are graduating.
5. And few of your good friends will actually be there.
6. A member of the uni faculty who you've never seen will give a speech.
7. And a guest speaker might be invited along.
8. Someone's name will be badly mispronounced.
9. You will be unbelievably hot.
10. You will get wrist ache from clapping too much.
11. A lot of the ceremony will be taken up with bizarre rituals.
12. And it will mostly be very confusing.
13. People will be there collecting PhDs with silly sounding titles.
14. You will spend a lot of time worrying that you’re going to do the handshake wrong.
15. Or trip over.
16. Because someone will actually trip when they go to collect their certificate.
17. At least one of your parents/relatives will cry.
18. You will try to throw your mortarboard in the air.
19. You will seek out the most attractive places on campus for your photos.
20. And you will discover that official graduation photos are A LIE.
21. After the ceremony there will be some sort of terribly awkward drinks reception.
22. You and your friends might go for celebratory drinks in one of your old haunts.
23. You might feel a bit sad that it's all over.
24. But mostly you'll be glad that bloody dissertation is behind you.
