Gen Z Diary: A tourist joined my sister in taking photos of me with my diploma

Jane Cowan on her graduation day at Trinity College Dublin.

The first thing I learned while studying in Trinity was that you never walk underneath the campanile. The superstition is that if the bell rings while you are underneath it, you will fail your exams. It is a rule that every student obeys.

Perhaps the second thing I learned in Trinity was that the tourists are as much a part of the campus as the students. I would regularly be asked for directions to the Book of Kells and the Old Library while on my way to lectures. Often, I would be walking in the direction the tourist was trying to go, so I would walk with them part of the way. I didn’t mind it too much.

To be a Trinity student is to be an animal in a zoo. It felt like the pig toll tax of studying in a historic university. Eventually, I became pretty savvy about avoiding the tourists when I wanted to. I would use toilets on the top floor of the arts building as the tourists queued for 20 minutes on the ground floor. I spent my time scoping out the best seat in the (tourist-free) library and making it onto a first-name basis with one of the librarians (my proudest achievement to date).

Last week, my college chapter officially ended as I attended my graduation ceremony. It was an exciting day, if a little nerve-wracking. The ceremony was scheduled for 1pm. So, naturally, I needed to wake up at 7am to get ready. I spent most of the morning figuring out how I would walk up onto the stage without tripping over myself.

I walked up and down the stairs in my heels and pyjamas until I had satisfied myself. Then I showered and spent half an hour contemplating if I should wear my hair straight or curly. You know, the important things. I did my make-up the same way I always do it but more slowly.

Jane Cowan on her graduation day at Trinity College Dublin.

The universe decided to test my patience by sending me a power cut while my hair was still wet and my make-up was not done. Still, with somewhat damp hair, I managed to make it to campus with enough time to have a coffee before the ceremony began.

I know graduation is supposed to be a fun day where you get to feel all the hard work paying off. But I felt a little more like a Billie Barry kid having their Toy Show debut. Except it was a group of book nerds who mostly looked uncomfortable with the sudden onslaught of attention, being forced to perform while our parents worked out the difference between the regular camera and the selfie camera on their phones. It was quite the spectacle.

The ancient organ playing while the graduates and guests filed into their seats. The sun streaming in through the massive windows like a spotlight, blinding the unlucky few in its path. Prancing around on stage in front of a few hundred people.

Though I should have probably been soaking in the grandeur of it all, I spent the first half of the ceremony worrying about missing my name being called and the second half thanking my guardian angel that I stayed upright the entire time.

The ceremony was delivered in Latin, which felt as pretentious as it sounds. And being unable to check the time on my phone created the uneasy sense that the ceremony could actually be eternal. The humiliation ritual continued on while we had to complete a procession with our diplomas through the front square in full view of the tourists.

Walking over those cobblestones in heels felt like a spiteful message from George Salmon — the (now dead) provost who made the unfortunate and correct declaration that it would be over his dead body that women would graduate from Trinity — that this campus was not for women. It was a high-pressure situation; there were far too many cameras ready to catch me tripping over.

The procession was followed by photos with the friends that have seen me shed a tear in the library at 2am more times than I would like to admit. I didn’t even mind when an American tourist joined my sister in taking photos of me with my diploma. Though it went on for so long, I probably could have charged her.

The highlight of the day was finally walking underneath the campanile with my degree for the first time. Even if it landed me on a tourist’s Instagram, it felt good.