Written by Concillier
12 Aug 2019
Indeed time flies. It feels like yesterday when I joined Lund university. Before our official graduation, the Swedish Institute invited us (the scholars) to Stockholm for the Swedish Institute diploma ceremony. Stockholm is always exciting and the ceremony made it even more exciting. This was a time to meet all our fellow scholars one last time to celebrate our achievements before graduating. From my previous post, you will agree that during graduation, there are indeed a lot of events taking place.
The Swedish Institute diploma ceremony took place in the beautiful Blue Hall at the Stockholm city hall and we had a smart/business casual. The venue was special because this is where the annual Nobel Banquet takes place. It was a beautiful spring afternoon and the weather was perfect. Stockholm never looked lovelier. It was an evening full of entertainment, celebration, warmness and sense of achievement and appreciation for how far we had come. The program directors, current and past scholars gave moving speeches about their experience and later on, we had a great dinner to culminate the experience. The highlight of the night was receiving the diploma certificate from the Swedish Institute.
That evening, so much went through my mind. I remembered how everything was so different just a year ago. I remember seating on my bed one hot January afternoon working on my applications and sending them 2 days to the deadline. I remember getting the email that I had gotten the scholarship and calling my mother immediately with a lot of excitement and disbelief. I remember doing my visa applications hustle free because of the support of the Swedish Institute. I remember booking my flight to Sweden. I remembered landing at the Copenhagen airport and being so confused about which train I was to take to Lund. I remember Meghan from the Lund International team welcoming all of us with a big beautiful smile at the airport. I remembered the smell of cinnamon buns at the train station. I remember the underwhelming feeling of thinking Lund was a little town but falling in love with it a few minutes later when I realised how its small size was so convenient. I remembered joining rugby for the first time. I remembered meeting my classmates for the first time. I remembered my first class and all the classes that followed to lead me to my Master thesis. Everything had culminated to this very moment – what more could I be than grateful?
