Preamble: This article is a description of my year 2006, supposedly accompanying my pictures for that year on my website. but I post it here anyway… it is just a snapshot of the article… future updates will only be made at the website…
2006 is a special year for me. I finally got the highest degree possible: Ph. D. Even though I officially graduated in year 2005, and I’m called as class of 2005, I attended my hooding and commencement in 2006. It is a once in life event. Now I just wish that I did more… did better for this event…
The hooding and commencement are no doubt the highlight of the year. I especially invited my parents to come to Princeton and share with them my joy and happiness. My host family also attended my hooding ceremony. They were seated in the front row of the second floor of the McCarter theater. To me, it was the best seat for the hooding ceremony, as you can see from a short video showing me on stage. I really spent a lot of time figuring out the best seat. I first started thinking of the seating even two years before (2004). In that year, I volunteered (paid volunteer) to work for the hooding ceremony… and my secret purpose was actually searching for the best audience seating…
It was soooo great meeting lots of old friends at Princeton University once again. I personally have known a lot of them for 5-6 years, or ever since they first came to the University. We built up a strong friendship during our work, study and lives at Princeton. I still don’t know when I will meet many of them again in the future… but I’m sure I could not meet that many friends at the same time and place ever again… it is a sad… sad… fact of life…
I was sooo sad that I finally had to leave that place…. a place I spent five whole years of my life… honestly… it was the second best time I ever had… in my life… the best time was from first grade to sixth grade… a time I knew nothing about life… nothing about future… and precisely because of that… no other time can surpass it… But anyway…. as I walked out of the FitzRandolph gate, I knew… no matter how I unwilling I was… Princeton became a past tense in my life… It became a piece of memory… drifting away… and I had to look to the future… accept the hard, bitter life (compare to Princeton life)…
But the commencement was not all for the year. As you can see from the long list of places I went during the year… I travelled a LOT… the credit should actually go to my parents. They came to the states for half a year… attended my commencement… and travelled a LOT… we actually went out almost EVERY weekend… and I used up all my vacations for the year… What a year!… but as you might have guessed… I did not travel at all (almost) in the other half of the year… hmm… maybe I should be more active for myself?… heh?
If you think some of links broken, it is not a mistake. I only put my pictures on this website. No other people will (shall) appear in the album. Many times I took pictures with many friends or just shot the scenery… And they have been left out…
2007/10/16