It’s graduation week this week! If you’re graduating this week, congratulations! Graduation week is a week for celebration, a week of ceremony and a week to reflect on where you’ve come from and look towards where you’re going.

Graduating from university is an important milestone in both your professional and personal career. It is a milestone that should be marked. It is an opportunity to commemorate your achievement, to pat yourself on the back after all your years of hard work, study, sleepless nights, assignment deadlines and of course learning. Hopefully you have learnt a great deal from both your formal studies and the experience and life lessons learned from your time at university.

The importance of marking the occasion of graduation is well documented. And while there may be a formal ceremony, it helps to have something to remember your achievement other than your testamur. In many countries, graduation is referred to as “commencement” which is interesting, because we often view graduation as an ending, the end of your university life, rather than a beginning, but it is just that.

Marking your achievement with a memento of your studies such as a gift, or memorabilia, helps provide for a marker for the learning you have acquired, thus ensuring it is retained. It also serves as an important symbol for the hard work you have undertaken, a reminder that might prove valuable in possible future challenging situations. Furthermore, purchasing a memento of your time at university helps establish a connection with your alumni, which could prove important as you move through your professional career or go on to do further study.

So buy yourself a gift or suggest to family and friends that they could mark the occasion with one. CDU Bookshop has a range of gifts to commemorate your graduation. Come in and see us before the week is out.And if you're in Darwin, don't forget to come see us at our pop up store at the Darwin Convention Centre this Thursday 19 and 20 May.