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On Monday 16th July 2007 I graduated from Warwick University. I achieved a 2.2 in Mathematics, and I assumed that would be the proudest award I would receive for at least a week. Not so - during the afternoon, when gowns were slipping and mortar boards, since the traditional throw-in-the-air somehow not the same size one started out with, we were helping ourselves to complimentary strawberries and cream in the Maths Department when a speech was announced. We sauntered round to 'The Street' (the cool name for the area of floor in front of the stripy painting) to listen to someone drone on about acclaimed universities and being members of an elite group and so forth. After a little while, he mentioned awards; every year some half-dozen of the 300 graduates of the maths department are given special recognition for their outstanding work - particularly insightful fourth-year projects, or an exemplary approach to a research problem, for instance. So imagine how surprised I felt, as a decidedly average Maths student, to be called forward first. Now I knew it had nothing to do with mathematical ability - I've been pretty solidly non-outstanding for a solid three years as far as academic studies are concerned, but I never guessed what it would be for.
By now I suspect you have guessed - I was proudly presented with a grotty little potted plant for my sterling work in the imaginative relabelling of local specimens of modern art. Apparently in a weak moment the speaker had done a search for 'Warwick Maths' on YouTube, and happened across my work. And, thankfully for me, plumped for the due-credit-and-recognition line rather than the legal-action-and-compensation alternative. By scrolling just a little further down, you may not only see photographic evidence of my award (well, a picture of me holding a potted plant), but also, to allay the scepticism of the least gullible, a video taken of the presentation by my own dear father.
| Receiving the Award (Click on the picture for the video - 37Mb wmv) |
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