The past week has brought many mixed emotions for the almost 900 graduates that left Charles Sturt University in Wagga.
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It was the culmination of three, four or more years of hard work of study, lectures, tutorials and university food that saw them emerge with degrees, diplomas or other qualifications.
You enter a university degree convinced you’ll be equipped at the end of it with the skills to conquer or change the world.
The reality is that you’d settle for skills to eradicate a hangover or complete an assessment on time.
It is encouraging to see so many minds being moulded in Wagga.
The local campus offers plenty of interesting courses and attracts people from all over for its renowned agricultural courses.
There were plenty of tears, laughter, congratulatory texts messages and phone calls and celebratory drinks with friends and dinners with family.
And more than a few mortar boards were tossed in the air.
It is all those little things that you wait for, and rightly earn, when you complete a course.
It’s cliche but you wait for graduation day because you want to look back in five or 10 years time at the photo of you waiting eagerly for the mortar board you’ve just thrown to come back down.
And now, the Wagga campus has released hundreds of qualified professionals into their chosen fields.
Some might have jobs while others are still looking but the community should be proud of the role they played to nurture these minds.
Graduates have lived and worked among us, we have interacted with them and perhaps even helped them study.
And from doing yet another week of coverage on graduations, it is obvious that some people have had to overcome obstacles to obtain their degree.
Family, other jobs or a move to the other side of the country, they appeared but were not detrimental to these people getting their qualifications.
It’s just as interesting hearing about their future plans as what it is to hear about the road it took to get them there.
And it’s further proof that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Congratulations to all the graduates of 2017 and good luck with your future plans and goals.