Saturday, May 8, 2010

Epic Graduation

I just want to take a brief moment to describe to you how completely EPIC graduation was today.

It started even before graduation, when I went to brunch after Mass with the fam and realized that the line was way too long, and I would need to go grab my cap and gown right then if I wanted to change into it and make it to lineup on time. This was extremely lucky, as upon returning to my room, I realized that my cap was nowhere to be found. It either got mixed up in the bags that I packed up or in the bags that I threw away. I booked it to the bookstore where I was able to snag a new one for free. Then, my feet were hurting way too much, so I peeled off my shoes and ran across campus. I feel very fortunate for the past year that I've spent working out and starting a running routine, because I was able to run rather quickly all the way from the bookstore to the HCC without losing my breath. This may not be that huge for some, but for me, this was completely awesome. If I had attempted that this time last year, I would have been out of breath and passed out by the time I got to the library. Epic.

Brunch was okay. Not the greatest, but well, the school no longer needs to lure us in with good food, so why pull out all the stops?

Lineup was not so great. My heels were seriously killing me by this point. I almost fell over and died . I felt better when I got to see Sister Ephrem in line next to Kathy Cox as we were starting to file into the gym... as they were both shouting my name and waving over enthusiastically like proud parents. I felt amazing.

But this was the truly epic part. We walked in to the field house, and it was dark except for the spotlights up front and the ones aimed directly at us as we walked in. Everyone in the crowd stood around to watch us... flashes of light popped here and there out of the corners of my eyes, I immediately spotted my family, who sat in the second to last row, and was not ashamed to smile big and proud and wave and give them a thumbs up. The music was super regal-sounding, and combined with the crowd staring at me and the spotlights on me, I felt so proud of myself and like I was kind of a big deal. I completely forgot the pain in my feet and strutted down that aisle with my head held high. I felt like I was in a movie. It was just EPIC.

The speaker was really amazing. A bit long, but I loved everything she had to say. Our student speaker made me proud because she was gutsy enough to talk about how important the Johnnie culture was to us as our experiences as Bennies, right there in front of Baenniger, who was not that happy at all about it. I received a diploma cover with no diploma in it quite yet, but still, I felt so much joy and pride in myself and my journey. I'm super excited for what is to come.

Epic. Just epic.

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