Graduation!!

The commencement ceremony was held at the big Calvary Assembly church in Orlando. When I first walked into the church, I thought it was a bit of a big venue. As it turned out, the place was packed tonight. The ceremony didn't last nearly as long as I thought it was going to be. It was about 2 hours long. Over 400 students graduated tonight.
My very kind friends Danny, Julie and Sam. Danny is pretty funny. He's never seen me in person before so when I introduced myself to him on Friday, he looked at me funny and said, "I thought you would be blonde". It was pretty funny that we have this image of what we think each other is going to look like based on their internet personality over the past 2 years. Danny thought I was blonde because he's seen pictures of the kids from our Florida vacation last year when Megan's hair was really light colored.
My dear friend, Kathi, and I. Kathi and I have had quite a few classes together and we've both had a rough year this past year with personal things in our life. We've gotten very close and I'm going to be sad that we won't be in class together anymore, but we have each other's email. I will say that she was the one person out of everyone that I was looking forward to meeting.
We pulled the group together for a big picture of all of us. Right after this picture was taken, our close little group huddled into a prayer to remember Joyce, one of our students that was supposed to graduate with us, but died unexpectedly last year. It was a very tender moment.

The ceremony was great. When Dr. Greenlaw (the president of the college) handed me my diploma cover, he told me he was impressed with me and that he hopes to see me back again at the college in a few years when they start their BSN-to-DNP program.

This is my friend, Patricia. Patricia sent me the absolute sweetest and most encouraging email to me a few weeks ago when I was considering not making the trip to graduation because of being overwhelmed with the move. I was so glad I made the trip. Everyone seemed to genuinely happy to see each other. When we were all huddled in a group, everyone told me how happy they were that I had made the trip. I somehow earned the reputation of being the class cheerleader. They told me that if our class had to elect a president, they would have chosen me.

So to clarify the graduation attire - the super-man looking cape thing is blue and silver on the back (the school colors), with an apricot colored lining - apricot signifies that my major is Nursing. The blue and grey cords signify that I graduated Summa Cum Laude and with Nursing Honors.