Ticking things off the list

Well, in almost exactly 36 hours time I will be graduating from this august institution. This still seems strange to consider. It's a more pleasant kind of hanging around than waiting for exam results. I will try to quickly summarise the last few days, during which I've been busy, along with fellow graduands, trying to tick off some of the remaining items on the list of things to do whilst a Cambridge undergraduate.

Monday. CICCU leavers' event: After lunch on Christ's Pieces and presentations on behalf of CGS and UCCF, we had a talk from Ian Hamilton, minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church, entitled 'Stand Firm in the Faith'. Based on the book of Daniel, the suggestions for effective Christian living were unsurprising, but nonetheless true and well-presented: prayer, the word of God, the church of God. I might have added dependence on the Spirit of God, who indwells and empowers believers, but it could be said that this was implicit in the belief that it is only through God's grace that we can persevere to the end. I know in UCCF circles there's often a sense that we should avoid "secondary" issues to maintain harmony, but I like the way Ian Hamilton puts his cards on the table. I particularly appreciated his stress on the importance of the church and on the corporate nature of the people of God under the new as well as the old covenant. This is a truth often neglected by contemporary evangelicals, but which has been better preserved in the confessionally Reformed circles Ian Hamilton belongs to. A more amusing manifestation of Mr Hamilton's Reformed credentials was his reassurance that we need not read Calvin and the Puritans in order to be saved, but that if we were wise, we would do so. He also mentioned that he has recently participated in a programme for BBC Radio 4 on the subject of spiritual experience - they had a shamanist and a Rastafarian and wanted a Calvinist to balance things out. In the evening I was at Teri Aki again, but with different company: Alex Norman, Peter and Mark.

By the way, the idea of primary and secondary issues has tied me in knots at times and I like the suggestion of Cameron Drury, our college CU houseparty speaker last September, that we should speak instead of "essential" truth and "significant" truth, to avoid the suggestion that issues such as baptism, election, or spiritual gifts are unimportant. I also like the assertion of (I think) one of the Jesus CU students: "The doctrine of primary and secondary issues is at best tertiary in importance".

Tuesday was quite a busy day on the social front. In the morning I went punting with Peter, Mark and Alex. Alex was co-opted as the most expert punter. We generally meandered leisurely up and down the Cam. The headline news is that I punted for the first time. After my initial anxiety about my sense of balance I got the general hang of things. I managed to approximate a straight line, travel under two (high) bridges and avoid falling in. "Not bad for a humanities student," as Alex commented. I suppose this is a new skill to put on my CV.

In the afternoon I went to the Fitzwilliam Museum, along with Dominic and Julie. Since this is free, it's worth doing, and it was the first proper visit for all three of us. The architecture and decoration of the building itself is worth the visit - the building is imposingly neoclassical, though we couldn't identify the pillars. The museum contains both artefacts such as pottery and coins from world civilisations and artworks from across Europe, some by eminent painters such as Brueghel, Constable and Picasso.

The evening was the HT leavers' barbecue. Rupert Charkham (the vicar) spoke briefly on Chariots of Fire (incidentally, my grandfather was taught Bible class by Eric Liddell in China) and the Bible verse quoted in the film, "Those who honour me I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30). Barbecue outside was followed by strawberries and dessert inside, followed by coffee and tea and general high-spiritedness. On the way back from the barbecue I got caught in a thunderstorm - see my previous post.

Today, not much happened until mid-afternoon apart from laundry and suchlike. I then went to a careers event at the Garden House Hotel. This event involved the big graduate companies who still have vacancies left publicising themselves to graduands who don't yet have jobs. My feeling is that I don't do careers and this event didn't do much to dispel my feeling. This might seem a hopelessly impractical outlook, but I haven't hit a dead end quite yet. This is not to sound overly dismissive - the Cambridge careers service provides great resources and good advice for people looking for jobs. It's just that typical graduate career paths don't tend to excite me that much. I did get a free ice cream out of it, so it was worth sticking my head in. On returning to college I bumped into Mark on the way to King's evensong. As I had nothing else planned, I went along with him. I can now tick off another box on the list of "Cambridge" things to do. This evening Dominic, Mark, Peter, Alex and myself went to Caffé Uno, an Italian restaurant.

Tomorrow, I ought to get up in reasonable time, and begin the final packing up of my room. I would prefer to spread this over the day and allow time to see people rather than to let it be a frantic demoralised rush. Thus I ought to go to bed soon and set my alarm. I also get to pick up my robes for graduation tomorrow. It might start to sink in then.