College Grad

BYU graduation was spread over a two day period.  More time for celebrating!  Woohoo!

So on Thursday I got up early and headed to campus for my last final: Literary Critical Theory.  We were told to analyze a few Robert Frost poems.  I got a little creative and wrote about racism, minorities, etc.  "Soo... the flower represents white Americans..."

That's what I love about English.  If you can find a shred of evidence to back you up, no one can say you're wrong. 

I hope that will prove to be true in the real world too.

Soon after I got home, the fam arrived.  Here's the crew!

Doesn't Zac look like he's just having the time of his life?  {Honestly, I don't blame him.  Graduations that aren't your own can be kinda dull.}

That picture was taken after I walked on Friday.  Notice the absence of one of those quaint caps.  Well... I'll get to that story later.  Here's the cap, if you were disappointed by the first pic:

So back to Thursday.  I grabbed my cap and gown and the fam dropped me off in the parking lot where the humanities majors were to meet.  Luckily I have a few other friends in the humanities college, otherwise the whole standing-and-freezing-my-butt-off-in-the-parking-lot-for-an-hour thing would have killed me.

We floated along the sea of blue gowns down through a tunnel that let us up into the Marriott Center.  We listened to speakers.  Lots of speakers!  On both Thursday and Friday!  I don't blame anyone else for playing Scrabble– but I was totally into it.  It's different when it's your own graduation.  I especially liked the Dean of English, who was hilarious and compared professors to troglodytes.

Walking was awesome.  I went by my full name, including the new last name.  I watched the announcer out of the corner of my eye to see if he would smirk, burst into laughter, or do a double take.

He did a good job.  Very good at suppressing any emotion.

After the final speaker, as we all stood to watch the faculty file out of the building, I turned around and asked Amelia to throw her hat with me.  The guy next to me was in on it too.  At my high school we were forbidden to throw our caps at graduation, which was devastating.  So I had this Hollywood image in my mind.  We were going to throw our hats and everyone would get excited and join in.  Roaring applause!  There would probably be some confetti or something.  Something!

Yeaaaaah, three flimsy caps flipped into the air and that was the end of it.  I did get a few cheers out of people in the audience, but the graduates were acting like they were participating in a funeral procession.  Sometimes, BYU, you gotta lighten up and have some fun, k?  At the very least on graduation day.  Anyway, hence why I'm missing the cap in some of the pictures.  Just as well—they're not exactly flattering.

Then Amelia and I went outside to ring the bell.  It's a BYU tradition for grads to ring the bell to announce to the world their accomplishment.  I'm adding my own superstition that it's good luck for finding a job.  :-)

Meet Amelia:

Oh, you might have also noticed that really "cool" professor in the background.  I was hoping to get a picture of one of some of the professors in their colorful hoods and funny page boy hats but this is who we got.  The professor who refuses to be stuck in tradition.  Love it!

Back to Amelia.  I may have mentioned her before.  Last fall semester she and I randomly had every single class together but one.  It was obvious we were meant to be friends.  She may be one of the main reasons I was able to survive the last year of school.  Thank you Milz.  

While I'm at it... thanks to all the people I met at school-- both BYU–Idaho and BYU--who helped distract me when I needed it, and who made school an absolute blast!

 And thanks, Roy, for being patient with my late nights of studying and essay-writing.  But especially thanks for being the best cheer leader ever!

And thank you Cosmo for providing such a great photo opp. 









Thank you BYU for the "sample" diploma.  Truly.

It will look most excellent on our wall for four months {while I wait for my real one to come in the mail.}

Thank you everyone who sent their congratulations via snail mail or facebook {yes, I succeeded in my fast and though I am again frequenting facebook, I don't feel as addicted.}

But in all honesty, I never would have had these amazing experiences without these two:

Mom and Dad—
When the moment came to flick that tassel from one side of my cap to the other, I wasn't thinking about how many assignments I'd finished to get there.  I wasn't thinking about that C in college algebra or the A+ in geology.  I was thinking about how lucky I am to have parents who pushed me to succeed.  Parents who let me choose my dreams and then provided me with the opportunities to accomplish them.  {I was also thinking about how weird it was to have a Jimmer backdrop for your graduation photo, but it was less important.}

Thank you SO MUCH!