So Saturday was the big day. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in social work. Kind of weird. I guess I never thought I'd actually get here. But I am finally a college graduate. I feel...so...employable? Which is even more weird because I'm going back to school instead of looking for a job. Oh well, Saturday wasn't weird, it was great!
The greatness actually got started on Friday when my awesome brother got to come home for the weekend. He's so sweet. That night I helped my mom prepare all of the food for my graduation party for the next night. By help I mean dance around the kitchen and mostly annoy her and get in the way while she worked hard. She loves me so much. I did have a big hand in making the fudge though. And it turned out quite delicious if I do say so myself ;)
Then Saturday morning we put some finishing touches on the food and got ready to head to campus for the big event! We took a bunch of pictures and then the fam went to find seats while I went to line up for graduation. This was the least fun part of the day and I have a few suggestions for my school and/or any other institution. I am under no illusion that anyone important will read or adhere to these suggestions but lets list them anyway shall we? I love a good list.
1) Graduation gowns should have pockets. I am a girl and cannot stand in line, walk outside on a windy day, then wait for a couple of hours before getting a very important picture taken without a quick lip gloss re-application and running a brush through my hair. Where am I to store these essential items when I have no pockets to hold them? I did find a place for the lip gloss and my keys but no need to go into detail.
2) Along these same lines there should be mirrors placed around the room where the graduates are standing around waiting. Again, I'm about to take a picture that my mom is bound to frame and put in a prominent area around the house. I want to look good in it! Fixing my hair in the reflection of the phone of the guy standing next to me is not sufficient.
Well this list is only 2 items long and I'm already sick of my whining. So on to good points of the ceremony. When we finally walked into the arena it was overwhelming but in a good way. We walked in on floor level, Pomp and Circumstance blaring, and a crowd full of proud family and friends cheering and hooting for their loved ones. I looked around with a stupid gape mouthed grin on my face trying to find my family. When I finally wiped the goofy look off my face and realized it might as well be impossible to find them I started looking around and paying attention to what was going on around me. A quick glance to my left and what did I see waiting in one of the tunnels? Men in kilts with bagpipes!! Okay, so if you know me at all you've probably already come to the conclusion that I'm a little odd and a complete nerd. Included in my nerdiness is a love of bagpipes. So needless to say I was super pumped about spotting the kilt clad men. I tapped the shoulder of the girl in front of me and said "Look! Bagpipes!" She gave me a nice smile that said "Oh, that's nice. Why is she telling me that?" Okay, so we're not all bagpipe fans but if you can listen to Scotland the Brave and it not touch your soul even a little then I guess you really don't like bagpipes. Or maybe you're Irish. Alright, moving on.
The ceremony itself was done well. As soon as I sat down I was finally able to spot my family waving from the stands. Then I was able to focus on the task ahead. Getting across the stage. The college of Arts and Sciences was the first to be recognized so I didn't have long to be nervous. Made it across the stage, stopped to shake two hands and never fell down. Pretty impressive considering there were two sets of stairs involved. Stairs are my second largest arch nemesis. The first being gravity. Bad thing about going first though is you have a long time to wait while everyone else goes to shake the hands of people they've never met. At least the guy reading the names was entertaining. He looked like a professor from Harry Potter and was very theatrical with all the foreign names. I think he was given the job because he was the only one who could pronounce the Italian, Russian, Arabic, and Afrikaans names.
When it was all over I went outside and began the hunt for my family. This would have been much easier if I had kept my phone with me but seeing as how I didn't have any pockets to put it in... We probably should have set up a rendezvous point. I now see why the firemen always stressed that when they came to school and taught us about safety plans. Anyway, we finally found each other and headed home to grab all of the food we...mostly mom prepared and set up for the party. The party was a lot of fun and I had a great time celebrating with some wonderful family and friends. Special thanks to everyone who helped make the day one to remember.
Got to give a big shout out to my amazing family. I would never have made it this far without their unwavering love and support. My family rocks! Alright, that's enough for one post. If you actually read this far then I'm impressed. Your prize for tolerating my babbling is this hilarious video clip that has absolutely nothing to do with my graduation... Turkey?
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