After I finished my graduate studies, I had to take a certain professional licensing exam. It's administered twice a year on specific dates, and the results are disseminated by publishing it in the state-wide newspaper (!!!). There was no way to hide this process from my family, so I left town for two weeks right before the results for my test date came out, because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be in the list of people who passed (the pass rate was only 65%, and I wasn't the strongest student), and I wanted time to recover from the failure and accept it before facing everybody.
Turns out I did pass, and my family celebrated without me, rather than waiting for me to come home. I never got a celebration, as a result. Bastards.
