Throwback Thursday: Graduation!

 

This week's Throwback Thursday is going to recap my wonderful graduation from college 3 years ago (almost to the day!).

You see, my mom has always made a HUGE deal out of birthdays, holidays, and any other big event in our lives.  My college graduation was no exception.  She invited all of our family down from Indiana and arranged a huge celebration for the event.  It also happened to be May in Wilmington, NC, so the weather was absolutely perfect.  Before I recap the actual graduation weekend I want to quickly summarize my four years of college.

I started out at Indiana University, which was a ton of fun.  I was living with my cousin, Lindsey, and we had a blast no matter what we did.  We did happen to live in the crappiest dorm though...the music major dorm, so there were exactly 0 people that we had ANYTHING in common with.  As the year went on and the winter stayed gray and long I realized that I needed some warmth, sun, and beach.  I could not stand being landlocked and my body didn't know how to handle the highs of 3 degrees.  So when the end of the year rolled around I headed back to NC to attend UNC-Wilmington.

Lindsey and I out during Little 500 week

Two days before moving down to Wilmington we found a kitten under a car...a kitten that we all know now as K.C. . I took her down to Wilmington with me and moved into an apartment with my then boyfriend's, best friend's girlfriend.  She turned out to be a complete psycho and I moved out around Thanksgiving into my awesome condo!  I finished the year alone in the condo and was able to bring Chloe down, I missed that furball so much and was so happy to have her there with me.  Aside from the short stint with the insane roommate I loved UNCW.  I could go running on the beach in my shorts...in February.  I was able to surf year 'round and enjoyed playing club soccer that year.  I made some awesome friends instantly and my circle of friends only grew the longer I was there.  Each year we took a snowboarding trip and attended all of the fun events that Wilmington had to offer (Wing Fling, Beerfest, 4th of July at Masonboro, and a variety of other events).  At the conclusion of my sophomore year my best friend of ten years moved into the condo with me and we would remain there until just after graduation.  Junior year, I tried out for and competed with the surf team.  We were able to travel a little bit and won several competitions.  We spent my 21st birthday in Ocean City Maryland, dominating 5 other schools.  I also met a good friend of mine, Ashley, that weekend.

Russell, Suky, Me, and Adam snowboarding at App.

The crew after our epic weekend of snowboarding

Best friends from high school visiting me!

My first July 4 at Masonboro

Doing July 4 right! Don't mind Brian's hair...

Best buds!

Surf Competition in MD

It was a little cold and windy

I decided to major in Biology (a worthless degree if this is something that you are considering, Baby C) and minor in Chemistry.  I really enjoyed the classes that I was taking and excelled academically.  I joined several clubs and was more than happy to be at a school that did not place a lot of its social emphasis on its Greek system.  UNCW was the perfect school for me (even though I will always be a Tar Heel at heart).

When graduation rolled around it was bittersweet.  I was so excited to be moving on to the next phase of my life, but was sad to leave the people and place that I had really come to love.  Friday night, my mom hosted a cocktail hour at one of her friend's condos and an awesome dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the riverfront.  After dinner I had to play in a soccer tournament with my club team and ended up scoring the winning goal (on a bum ankle, surprise, surprise) in the championship game.  Brian and Joe flew in right after the game concluded and we had to prepare to get up bright and early to get more tickets for my ridiculous amount of family members attending graduation.  Graduation itself, was short and sweet, nothing like the pomp and circumstance of my high school graduation.  When the formal stuff was over we were able to go home and change and head to the Sunspree hotel on Wrightsville beach for some more celebrating by the pool.  We had food, alcohol, sun, and ocean, it was perfect.  That night we had a celebratory dinner at the Oceanic, my favorite restaurant on Wrightsville Beach and later spent the night celebrating at the beach bars where we ran into several of my close friends.  It was a perfect way to conclude my time in Wilmington.  Most of my extended family was there to support me and my mom was there as my number 1 fan, as always.  I can't believe its already been 3 years!!!

Champs!

Graduating

Dinner at Oceanic