Graduation From App State

It's so hard to believe that my graduate school graduation was a year ago today. That day will always be very special to me. It was a cold, rainy day in Boone. In fact, there was a bit of freezing rain.

I saw the Nutcracker with Taylor the night before. We went back to the apartment. I carefully picked out my outfit and steamed my gown. 

My family and friends got into town the next morning...

As I sat on that Saturday morning with all the other graduates and listened to the speakers and their motivational speeches, I knew this was it. I was finally being released (forced) into the real world. No more putting it off. Granted, I wasn't sure that I was graduating, because I had turned in a paper two days prior to this commencement that I felt was totally inadequate and might even cause me to fail the class and have my diploma revoked or held until I could pass, but whether that happened or not, I was still on the fast track to the REAL WORLD.

I had made it through graduate school. I was sitting with my peers from the program, and we had helped each other make it through and were all so proud of each other.

My college days were over. I thought about what Appalachian had done for me in the short time that I had been there. So much. 

In a year and a half, Appalachian State had equipped me with not only a reading degree, but also a chance to experience being a part of a large state university, the chance to live in another town and meet new people (some friends that will last forever), the chance to attend the same college as my brother and carry on the family legacy with him (my mom and aunt went there as well), a football team to cheer for, and a home away from home that I could always go back to.

I was now an alumna of two amazing universities. 

I celebrated with family and friends, sad to close this chapter of my life, but excited to take what I'd learned and apply it in the very near future.

Unfortunately, most of my graduation pictures were on my sister's iPhone, which wasn't backed up and crashed over the summer, so I don't have all of the pictures from this day, and honestly, that's something that will always sadden me deeply. But I do have the most important ones, and for that I am so grateful.

My mother brought her Appalachian graduation hat so we could take a picture together, and although I thought it was a little crazy at the time, I'm SO glad I have this picture. And I'm sure when my brother graduates in May, I will take my hat and she will take hers again and the three of us will get a picture. 

December 14, 2013 is a day I'll always cherish. I'm so proud to forever be a Mountaineer!

eBa