Introducing BYU's Latest Alumna

That is correct ladies and gentlemen, I finished my undergraduate degree. I went out to Utah the last week of April and received my degree.

It's official. I got my to my (fake) diploma (cover) and everything.

{I don't get the real one for a couple of months --- oh well}

It was amazing to go back to Utah. It felt like a drive by of the state because I don't think I had a moment to myself to rest. But it was amazing to go back and be able to walk in my graduation and to realize what a great accomplishment I had reached.

I flew into Salt Lake late Wednesday night. {Funny story about that one. I was on time all the way up until Denver, where I guess according to the pilot, the boards showed that our flight wasn't leaving for another 50 minutes so about 40 passengers had decided to split. So they spent the next 50 minutes rounding up the stray passengers, so essentially the plane left about the same time the board said we were going to leave. Nice going airplane companies. Nice going.}

Then bright and early the next morning, I was up to go see Jessica, my dear dear friend who I worked with as a CA. {Epic fail on my part -- no pictures of the glorious reunion. My bad.} We just grabbed breakfast, talked about all our old married/engaged co-workers, and just talked. It was so much fun seeing her again, and laughing at all our old jokes. She's such a sweetie.

Then came actual graduation. The speaker was Elder Christofferson -- who, ironically, our family distantly knows. His family was in our Herndon ward in Virginia while I was growing up. His wife was my mom's visiting teacher. Before he was called to the 12, he was a member of the Seventy who spoke at my freshman year Stake Conference. I introduced myself afterward, mentioning who my family was. And they actually remembered who we were. {I doubt anyone outside my family or my few close friends really read my blog so I don't truly feel the need to explain, but just by some off chance someone reads the above sentences and wonders what in the heck I'm talking about, essentially these are different positions within my church.} So .. that was cool. Graduation was funny because they didn't have enough seats for all the graduates in the Marriott Center, or for the Faculty. So we had to add an additional 20 minutes to the program to make sure everyone had a seat. But I got goosebumps nevertheless during the program when I thought that I was done and graduated. Officially completed one stage of my life. Another check mark in the notebook of life. It was truly humbling.

So anyway, to sum it up --I stood up and sat down ... and officially graduated. {Which only took 30 seconds of a 2 hour program, but whose counting?}

The next morning was commencement. That was the better day out of the two because I was with my Political Science posse. Half of my 410 class {senior thesis class} were in the same part of the line, so we were laughing and joking for the whole thing. Walking across the stage was an amazing feeling. {Almost falling down while getting back to my seat was not.} I mentioned that it was humbling because according to the dean of my college only 1% of the world's population graduates from college. Now when you are an individual within a pool of over 6,000 graduates, you don't feel that special. But to think that only 1% of the world's population achieves this, it is indescribably humbling.

I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to have been able to attend BYU, and to complete my degree. It is something that was always important to me. And I've done it.

Even now I cannot believe that I am done. No longer forced to go back to a campus, or take a test, or arrive to a class on time. But that I have finished that stage of my life, still hasn't quite hit me yet.

{Probably because I'll end up back at school for a graduate degree.} :)

Sitting in front of the JFSB fountain with my parents. Don't think I could have done it without them.

The classic BYU graduate picture. Mock me if you will, but you know you have the same picture when you graduated too.

So ironically, this was the first time I was in the Hinckley center. And the last. But they had a cool picture of campus, and we had nothing else to do. So -- here's that result.

Standing on top of the JFSB. Perfect spot to take pictures. No one ever thinks about going up there.