Matthew's college graduation

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Matthew's hard work has paid off... he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing from California State University, Long Beach. For his ceremony, Ate Gigi invited me and Joycelyn to join her and Kuya Merlin. Patrick was unable to join us because he still had classes in UC Davis. 

I was excited because it's the first time I got invited to a nephew's graduation. My other nephews and nieces (in the Philippines) could only invite their parents and siblings to the ceremony because of space constraints in their graduation venues. Anyway, I made sure that I had my Canon point-and-shoot at the ready so that Matthew would have a lot of photos to remember his achievement by.


The day started partly cloudy but the air was surprisingly nippy! I was so happy to have worn slacks to keep warm because Ate Gigi and Joycelyn were both wearing short skirts and they had to cover their legs with a scarf to stay warm. 


As the graduation candidates started piling into CSULB's track-and-field oval, the skies darkened and we thought that the rain might start. No wonder it was so cold! Ate Gigi and Joycelyn stayed at the oval while Kuya Merlin and I went behind the bleachers to capture Matthew's last moments of college life.


Kuya Merlin said that he was going to take videos. I was then tasked to take pictures. But probably because of excitement and a case of the nerves, Kuya Merlin failed to record Matthew's walk on his camera; instead, he recorded a video of feet walking past him.


I didn't see what was going on because I was focused on taking free-hand zoomed-in photos of Matthew while he was waiting for the Nursing students to start walking.


By the time we got seated again, the grey clouds disappeared and the day started getting warm. Hence, Ate Gigi repurposed Matthew's congratulations tarpaulin as a sun shade shared by everyone.


On the other hand, Kuya Merlin was holding up a blow-up of Matthew's baby photo. I wondered if Matthew could see all these efforts his parents made with the large crowd all over the oval. He didn't even know where we're seated!


After a relatively short wait, we finally saw Matthew walk up to get his diploma. But because I noticed that the large monitor only focused on the graduates for a few seconds, I decided to zoom in directly on the graduates as they got their diploma. Ate Gigi and Joycelyn were not able to take a photo of the big screen but I was able to get Matthew's photo walking off the stage, diploma on hand. It's a tad blurry but that's the best shot I was able to take.


After his graduation ceremony, it was time for family photos! Joycelyn got first dibs with the placards.



Eventually, the tarpaulin made its second entrance, now for its intended use.


Congratulations, Matthew! We can't wait to see what great things are in store for you! And congratulations to Ate Gigi and Kuya Merlin!

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