Nightjar wrote:

Graduation day is like the latter-day version of the debutant's c*ming out ceremony.

Didn't go. I was on holiday. I thought it was an absolute nerve that you had to pay extra to attend. I sort of regret it, because my grandparents would've loved going.

Nobody who goes to art school goes to the overarching university's ceremony.

I think some do, but they tend to be the people who can actually draw.

Nightjar wrote:

Despite being ... beyond brainy I am almost universally terrible at board games of any sort.

Chess, draughts, backgammon, you name it.

Cards.

I have similar intellectual capacities and am similarly bad at all non-chance games. Particularly chess because I can only play defensively. Why do we have to fight? Can't we just admire our neatly-ranked forces?

Nightjar wrote:

Nobody who goes to art school goes to the overarching university's ceremony.

I think some do, but they tend to be the people who can actually draw.

We should have a dedicated thread where we can all discuss our experiences of higher education.

Mine began in earnest when my grandmother stepped out of my grandfathers car at the exact moment someone emptied an ashtray from an upstairs window. A disorientating walk round a branch of Safeway kicked off the evening proceedings, which concluded with a boy from Theydon Bois I then spent the following three years avoiding.

Aha yes, as they used to say, the people you meet in the first three days at uni are the most important, because you'll spend the next three years trying to avoid them.

Would that I had done so rather than getting dragged into their poisonous little circle which no-one was allowed to leave on pain of being viciously vilified.

It's fine, it was 30 years ago, I'm over it.

Wikipedia offers an insight into the life unlived...

Several yearly events are observed in Theydon Bois. Of most note is the annual tradition of the Donkey Derby, which is usually held in July. The 26th consecutive event was held on 14 July 2013.^[7] The Derby involves children participating in donkey racing, which can be bet on in small-stakes. Individual races or the donkeys themselves can be sponsored in advance by villagers who are then offered the right to name the race or donkey respectively. Also included in the day are rides, games, stalls, donkey rides and food and drink tents. Profits made from the Donkey Derby are raised for the Theydon Bois Scouts, although have recently begun to benefit the local Girl Guides as well. The Donkey Derby was postponed from July until September for the first time in 2012 due to bad weather,^[8] although the rescheduled event also suffered from heavy rain and wind.^[9]

Fangirl Three wrote:

Aha yes, as they used to say, the people you meet in the first three days at uni are the most important, because you'll spend the next three years trying to avoid them.

Would that I had done so rather than getting dragged into their poisonous little circle which no-one was allowed to leave on pain of being viciously vilified.

It's fine, it was 30 years ago, I'm over it.

Oh yikes, I'm very sorry to hear it was such a negative time.

Apart from over an hour hiding in the loo on a train to Paddington, and a girl at a party telling me that she too had been there and not yet come to terms with the miniature prawn down his Y fronts, my avoiding was a success.

I've won a game!