Tuesday Tell All: Graduation

SPANISH FORK HIGH SCHOOL: May 1995

I LOVED high school. It was a wonderful time to learn about amazing subjects like trigonometry, physiology, seminary, drivers education and chemistry: the kind with beakers and with boys. I loved getting involved, meeting new people and sharing it all with a wonderful group of friends. They were carefree years when I matured as a person and learned what I wanted out of life. But by the time graduation rolled around, I was pretty much ready to move on. Actually, I kind of had moved on. When I applied for BYU my senior year, I decided to apply for the spring semester since I had already been accepted into BYU-Hawaii for the following fall. Provo said yes, so soon I found myself taking classes at at BYU in the afternoon while I was still in high school. It was a bit crazy since I had AP History in the morning and seminary and had I dropped out of A Capella a month early. I also nixed a few other classes I didn't need to graduate. It was strange to rush over for our senior picture outside the school with my BYU homework in my backpack, but it was the right thing for me to do.
I took a Book of Mormon class, child development and some other general class that spring. I went straight from lecture to the Wilkinson Center for graduation rehearsal. After the big ceremony I went straight home and wrote a paper that was due the next day. It was a bit crazy, but I was excited to start the next chapter in my life. I never regretted pursuing my college degree even while I was still in high school. Thanks to those extra classes I was able to graduate from BYU in 3 1/2 years.

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Bachelor of Science Elementary Education: December 1998

If you thought my high school graduation seemed a bit anticlimactic, my final hours of being a college student had even less flair . You see, I completed my degree in December where there is no graduation ceremony. I simply took my last final and closed the book on my college education. It was weird walking out of the testing center know I was done, but yet there was no celebration. I simply had a peaceful feeling of relief wash over me knowing I was a college graduate.I chose to walk in April 1999 mainly because I wanted a photo of me in my cap and gown. Vain, I know, but I worked hard and wanted a picture to prove it. Since I had really been done with school for four months and the ceremony fell on spring break, my family was at Disneyland, but Grandma Nance came to support me as well at Rich's family. I was the first grandchild on either side to graduate from college. When I walked I was four months pregnant with Trey. It was very special to know that the next chapter of my life was coming: motherhood.

But don't feel sorry for me. I have had some very exciting graduation day in my life. Like Rich's crazy non-stop Stanford party. His parents, younger siblings, grandparents and my parents all flew out to Palo Alto.

Stanford University MAY 1997

It was INSANE! There were beach balls, graduates grilling during the talks, kites, fire blowers and endless paper airplanes and random signs. It was nothing like I had ever seen before. It was hands down the strangest and best graduation I've ever been to. It also didn't hurt that Stephen G. Breyer a supreme court justice was the commencement speaker.

University of Louisville College of Medicine: April 2005

And I LOVED Rich's medical school graduation. His parents and a few siblings and my parents all flew to Louisville to be with us. It was a day our entire family had worked towards. Rich's dad hooded him. I was and am very proud of my sweet, dear husband.

*PS While I'm on the subject of graduation, I felt it was appropriate to say a huge SORRY to my mother who spent nearly all of my own father's medical school graduation out in the hallway with her wild, loud and rowdy two year old daughter. I really wish I could back and hire a baby sitter for Greg and me so you could have enjoyed the moment instead of wrestling me! I love you!