Ruby's Graduation

A double degree is not something you stumble into. Ruby earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Auckland, and for most of those years she worked a part-time job alongside them. Lectures, shifts, late nights, repeat.

Yet all that work never took away her smile. Ruby doesn't take life for granted. She notices the small moments, celebrates them, and finds something to laugh about on even the busiest days.

So that is how we photographed her. Against the pale stone of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, both frames in hand, the serious faces lasted about a minute. Then the cap went up.

In the Auckland Domain the light turned golden under the old pines, the sunglasses came on, and the pink and blue hood ended up wrapped around her face more than her shoulders.

Proud, playful and grateful all at once: years of hard work behind her, and a big smile pointed straight at what comes next.