{"id":365,"date":"2007-11-30T06:53:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-30T06:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laimayleng.com\/blog\/?p=365"},"modified":"2024-09-10T14:21:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T06:21:49","slug":"alumni-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/alumni-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was very nervous that night. I didn’t know what to expect. I haven’t been out, at least not out for a glamorous dinner. Dressing up freaks me up. I wouldn’t know if I’m overdressed or overexposed or if my make up’s too thick or too blend.<\/p>\n

What should I wear to a college alumni dinner ? The cupboard door flung opened. There was a pause that seemed to linger forever as I stood thinking, considering my choices. Black. The black dress. I took out the halter neck two piece outfit, the lavender flowers greeted me.I remember so well the moment I fall in love with its floral pattern in the stall of Chatuchak, Thailand.<\/p>\n

The hand sewn flowers entices me. It was love at first sight. The minute I tried it, I knew I found my special dress. I smiled to that sweet memory as I took out the wrap around skirt. “I don’t think the dress looks nice on you” she said, a distant memory reminded me. “I don’t care, I love the purple florals and I love them more on me,” I thought to myself, ignoring the unflattering comment.<\/p>\n

I put it on and danced around my room. The skirt unfurled as I made the tiny steps in front of the mirror. I felt like a princess. Little things that makes you feel good about yourself, with some imagination, I have confidence.<\/p>\n

I arrived at the alumni dinner half past seven. I was late. I stepped into the ballroom and a familiar face greeted me warmly. I sat down on the round table, nervous and scared. I knew nobody at that table. I looked for my comfort zone and I walked to the faculty table. Ten years, it has been ten years I last met eyes with the people whom ignited the circuits of my highest potential. A knowledge that now lies dormant in me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Taking photos with the dean from Coventry University, the chancellor, standing tall and proud announced, “these are the first class graduating students year 1999”. Humbly, I smiled. Shyly, I thought, “I’m only a tuition tutor now and yet my chancellor was glowing with a justifiable pride.” I suppose our papers made a difference to her life. A standing glory. I acknowledged it and I continued snapping away with my other lecturers. The bond was rekindled with each passing question.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
As the night drew closer, the limelight of the dinner was on the attire. Names were called up on stage. I sat in excitement and was very amused with the outfits on stage. Sparten, Obi Wan, Snow White, Zorro.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It was unbelievable, that at present age and time, people still made the effort to dress up. And I was only in my little black dress.<\/p>\n

The remaining of the night was rather pleasant. The faculty performed. Watching the lecturers shake their booty, entertaining ex-students was indeed a rare occasion. I left early for the night and adjourn to another Halloween party. At the party, with my black dress, I was a witch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Halloween night, perhaps with the right spell, the days ahead would be kinder to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was very nervous that night. I didn’t know what to expect. I haven’t been out, at least not out for a glamorous dinner. Dressing up freaks me up. I wouldn’t know if I’m overdressed or overexposed or if my make up’s too thick or too blend. What should I wear to a college alumni […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inner-thoughts","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1404,"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/1404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laimayleng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}