Graduation!!

My BYU career came to an end this past week, with graduation on Thursday and Friday.  And while I’m still not really processing all that it means, those two days were definitely a ton of fun.  It provided a lovely excuse to celebrate!

It was graduation… so there’s going to be a lot of pictures.  But you know you will like it. Plus, I graduated so I’m fairly certain that means I get to do whatever I want now.

First, I have to point out that my parents got me a really awesome lei, as per tradition since my mom is from Hawaii and they love me a lot.

Now we may continue.

There were many happy meetings during the day, starting with a London (and Washington Seminar) reunion with the lovely Becky.

And I randomly ran into Hayley!  We have a high school version of this too. Fun stuff.

Jade from the newsroom.  She’s awesome. We both took 321 at the same time, and then worked at the fabulous DU as editors.

While we were in line we ran I ran into a huge group of wardies.  I think it is impressive there were so many of us randomly close!

I also ran into some of my favorite Washington Seminar people!

I realized during commencement that I had lucked out and was sitting next to people from all of my favorite BYU experiences: London Study Abroad, The Daily Universe & Washington Seminar.  Not too bad, considering there were like 5,000 grads!

The roomies were there.  Rebecca graduated too!  Love them.

The whole fam was there too, of course.  I love them too.

Annie & I went on a mini photo shoot at this BYU landmark.

I got to sit next to a bunch of awesome Daily Universe friends during convocation as well, but somehow I lost pretty much all of them after.  Luckily I did find Chase, ‘cuz DU people are the best!

Even with all of the excitement I found time for sisterly bonding.

Ta da!

Song = Graduation by Vitamin C.  Could it be anything else? As we go on, we remember all of the times we had together.  And as our lives change, we’ll still be friends forever.  Such words of wisdom from 2000.

The End is Near…

Today I had to clean off my desk at The Daily Universe.

This is officially my least favorite part of every semester, but this time it was even worse because I know I won’t be back in the fall. I’ve been at the DU for 2 1/2 years now, ever since I got back from London. I just love everything about each of the desks I’ve had there – the people, random celebrations, responsibility and even stress that came with them.

This college ending thing is still incredibly surreal to me. I know it’s not the end quite yet since I still have a paper and two tests to take, but the past few days have included a lot of lasts, like my last lecture, so I can’t help but be a little reflective. And I regret nothing. It’s funny because you don’t think about it too much while it’s happening, but I’ve really come a long way since I graduated from high school and started at BYU. I’ve done a lot of things that I thought were just dreams that weren’t actually realistic, like working at The Daily Universe (or even just majoring in journalism) and going to London and other countries on adventures and doing Washington Seminar, and so many other things. Even going to intern for the senate this summer. I can honestly say I regret nothing. Nothing at all.

There are some awesome celebrations that come with the end though, and while they’ll be continuing through the next week I’ve been able to enjoy a couple already. (Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures. I’m feeling nostalgic)

Namely, the end of winter semester Daily Universe BBQ:

And the Washington Seminar reunion/most of us are graduating celebration:

(points for knowing what we’re doing in this one)

I’m so excited for the future! But there are definitely some things I’m going to miss (mostly people. You know who you are, and you are hereby required to come visit me in DC), so this last week in Utah has officially been dubbed “savor being here” week. Maybe I’ll get around to actually taking some finals too, but I make no guarantees.

*Song = My Only Offer by Mates Of State (I can’t remember if I’ve done this one already or not, so if I have – tough)

It’s Coming…

Graduation is almost here.  It’s weird, I know.

But I got to have fun making announcements for my roomie Rebecca and myself. The colors are a little brighter in real life, but you get the idea!

Also, there will be more pictures from this past weekend up soon, I just haven’t had time to edit them all yet!  Darn schoolwork.

Song = Sister in Love by Envelopes because it is a happy song and it was sunny outside today.  The end.