People Watching at the UPLB Graduation

Okay. As early as this first line of the post, I have crappy photos in this post. I did not really have intentions of taking photos of the UPLB Graduation, but I don't know what made me whip out my camera phone and take photos of interesting people.

I lived in UPLB all my life and I never attended graduation even if I had friends graduating. I saw it as an opportunity to be always doing something else (read: out of town activities) because my parents were the busiest at this time of the year. My late dad is the official photographer for more than 30 years during UPLB Commencement Exercises and my mom is always with a steering committee of some sort.

It is only this time of the year that I took part in UPLB Graduation. Earlier in the office we were like this:

Photo by Chad Roble

Then we had to go near the stage as part of the publicity and documentation committee.

I was supposed to graduate this year, but I had a writer's block for two months so I just pranced around with my thesis data. I thought it would be cool to graduate on the day UPLB first donned the sablay.

I tried to take a shot but it's too far from where I am standing. But the graduates now are wearing sablay instead of the good ol graduation toga.

But what caught my fancy are how friends, brods, sisses, orgmates of graduates exert so much effort in congratulating their friends/family/loved ones.

My favorite part is when I ran into this guy who brought a mascot with him, just to surprise his friend for graduating. Too bad I was not able to take a photo but it's really cool and it's really sweet.

Some brought balloons:

Some brought tarpaulins:

Some brought flowers and cakes:

And someone just had to make an entrance:

It rained really hard two hours before the ceremony but its a good thing it stopped for the ceremony. Nevertheless, the spectators were prepared with umbrellas:

I walked a bit just to obviously people watch. 

I wanted to kick my self for not bringing a proper camera. I saw so many interesting outfits that it seems like it's Coachella and not a college graduation day. 

Few hours before the event, I was telling my sister that I don't want to attend graduation day. Just the hooding ceremonies for graduate students the day/night before the actual commencement exercise. Because it's going to be inside the airconditioned auditorium and more intimate. 

But I changed my mind.

When I went home, I saw my friend Frankie instagrammed a photo:

I hope to graduate in 2014 with friends. I wouldn't mind to stand in line and under the heat as long as I'm with  my friends! 

Congratulations Graduates of 2013!