I finished university 3 and a half years ago I think… And for one reason and another (i.e I didn’t really enjoy it, I started a business, I couldn’t be bothered), I never go around to graduating.

This caused my parents a lot of anxiety as mum’s aim in life is to embarrass us as much as humanly possible, so finally I gave in and did it.

Now I wonder why I took so long. I LOVE events, I LOVE attention and I LOVE dressing up and I got to do all three together! The parade was really fun in a weird sort of way, I think it was more of a celebration of what’s happened since uni than the actual institution. It was cool to see some old and new friends laughing and cheering from the sidewalk and we actually had a lot of fun.

Sam Morgan from Trade Me gave a great speech at the ceremony, starting with ‘I suspect the vice chancellor has a sense of humor inviting a university dropout to give the graduation speech’ and went on to talk about mixing up your career. I think it was nice not to have the focus on how great Victoria University is and instead on how exciting life is after uni and how little emphasis you should put on the degree part. Also kind of ironic (is that the word) the best person they could find to talk to a group of commerce students was someone who dropped out (and is now one of NZ’s most successful business people)