| I could update about graduation, lol, a month later. I can't believe it has almost been a month. It actually hasn't sunk in yet that I have a degree yet.
Ok, so Friday night was my religion major commissioning service. I was expecting it to go dreadfully, because I am anal retentive and think evrything should be perfect. It did go off without a hitch, even though at the last minute someone didn't show up so we had to cover his part of the service. My family (parents, siblings, and grandparents) got to meet all of my religion professors, which was nice. Hickson told me he had good news and bad news about 402, the class I turned in some really crappy work for. He said the bad news was I got a B+ (I have always gotten As in his classes), but the good news was it was the highest grade in the class. lol. During the ceremony I did a reading, "Everything I Need To Know About Life I Learned as a Religion Major." Several of my rcm friends gave me some "need to knows" and I read them. The audience seemed to like it too, I got a really good laugh on my contribution of "There is nothing quite like the feeling of starting to outline the book of Leviticus." It was fun.
Autumn's family was in town by that point, so Elliott and I went out to Taco Bell with them. Mr Wilhelm paid for our dinner despite my protests. Then, despite exhaustion, Autumn and her friend Andrea and I headed off to rent a movie, while Mandie and her sister slept in the living room. Wait, I should explain. Mandie's parents flew in from Ohio and were staying in her new apartment, her grandparents also flew in from Ohio and were staying in a hotel, and her sister flew in from Alaska and was staying with us. Autumn's family of two brothers, her parents, and a friend drove down from Washington and were staying in Mandie's new apartment, except for the friend who stayed with us. We had a very full apartment for a few days, because when the families weren't sleeping, they were hanging out at our apartment. So, we rented a movie, the original Italian Job, but we were tired so we didn't finish it.
Saturday. Graduation. The day I had spent four years of my life slaving for. And that isn't too melodramatic either. Woke up around ten I think, to a house full of people. Autumn and I headed out to rent a storage unit, and got back just in time to get dressed before driving off to the church where graduation was. Mandie went to her new apartment with her family to get dressed. Oh, and we also finished putting together the gifts for our families, framed pictures of the three of us. Autumn and I picked up Katrina and we headed off, caps and gowns in the backseat. We got to New Hope right on time. All the graduates were in a room behind the sanctuary, where we put on our caps and gowns and received instructions. They called each of our names and announced our honors in the order in which we lined up. Initially my name wasn't called, which freaked me out, even though I knew Tori (the gal in charge) knew what she was doing. I finally was called for the second line, magna cum laude (the second highest honors), said goodbye to Autumn and went to stand in the line for a while. I was getting really excited at this point. It didn't seem real. At all. I talked to one of my freshman year hall mates, and I was like "How did we get here?" "I have no idea, we shouldn't have," she said. It was so true, it felt like I really didn't deserve to have letters after my name, because that is what, I dunno, educated people have. Surreal is the only word I have to describe the feeling.
We finally walk down the aisle. I am second in line, meaning I am in the first row of seating. "Don't cry" I told myself successfully. The ceremony was long, but nice. There were four student speakers and an introductory speech for each one, which was way to many. But oh well.
Finally, we began lining up to receive the diplomas. I was either 6th or 9th, I don't remember. I stood in line by the stage in complete disbelief, trying not to cry. Dawson was reading names and he gave me a big smile when I handed him my card with my name and honors on it. I kind of blanked out as I walked across the stage. I didn't hear anything other than Dawson's voice, didn't hear people clapping or yelling at me. President Jay handed my my diploma and towel (a sign of the service I am being sent out to do) and smiled at me. As soon as I stepped off the stage I started to cry and cry and cry. Tears were just streaming. I didn't even hear them call Mandie's name, and she was just two behind me. I walked up the aisle out of the sanctuary and waited for Mandie, still crying. We hugged then had to return to our seats. I clapped for my friends, and the people I didn't know, and slowly stopped crying. I was still in disbelief. The ceremony ended with more speeches, but shorter. The recessional began and I headed off to the reception area.
Since I was still second in line I was one of the first people out. All of the faculty had formed a path for us to walk through, and they were clapping for us. I was still so stunned with what had just happened that I didn't even hug some of the professors I wanted to see. I walked through in a daze. After some waiting I finally met up with my family, and some wonderful friends who came to support me. Lindz came, and so did Awesome and Andrew. I felt really loved by that. My friend Jaime came as well, she is the wife of one of my old married men (old bowling coaches) and said that the old men would have come but one was sick and the other was in Idaho. I was really touched that she would come though. She also came to my play. I found out later that several people from church that I don't even know that well came to support me, but left before the reception. More would have come but it was the weekend of the women's retreat so they were out of town. Tiff and Jay and the kids came too, which was really awesome. I was really overwhelmed with how much support I was receiving. We took gobs and gobs of pictures, I'll see about posting some. Lots of hugs, congratulations, cards, even presents. The president's secretary, Connie, found me and said I couldn't leave until I came to see her since she had something for me. It was a book called "LIfe's checklist" or something like that, a really interesting book.
My advisor, Williams, sought me out and wanted to congratulate me. We had a really long talk, him just telling me how much good I had done, my strengths, and how he had nominated me to be one of the student speakers. I was stunned to say the least. He said I had a great story and it deserved to be heard. It was one of the most amazing conversations of my life, and I was so overloaded I don't even remember most of it! Valeena got some pics of us talking that turned out well. I gave her my camera at the beginning of the reception and told her to go crazy with it. She did good. I got pics with friends, the librarian, roomate pics, family pics, a big group pic...so many!
After about an hour people were leaving, and Mandie and Autumn and I headed out to Hometown Buffet where our families were meeting us for dinner. The Strands were invited too, since they are our adopted family. It wasn't quite how I anticipated it, four tables in the middle of everything instead of off by themselves, and the families were segregated which was really annoying. I mean, I wanted to sit with my family, but I wanted to be able to interact with the others too and it was difficult. We gave out the pictures and our families loved them. Mandie gave me a scrapbook she made with some great pictures, and Autumn's family gave me a card too, and the Strands. I held Kayla for a while after I finished my food and she kept playing with my honors cords. (Sidenote, I was thinking about it, and I realized that I love Kayla and Kenzie more than I have ever loved two little girls before. Part of it is because they are Tiff's kids, but it is more than that.) Eventually people left, my mom and siblings headed back to the beach, and we headed home. I don't remember much about that night. I think we finished our movie and did some packing.
The graduation stage.
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Me and my mom.
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Me and my dad.
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Me and my grandparents.
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Kenzie and Tiff, Autumn, Mandie, me and Kayla.
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The roomies.
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Us and our diplomas. See my gold shiny?
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Williams telling me nice things.
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My family crazy.
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My family posed.
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Huge group shot. A lot of work went into tracking everyone down for this one.
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