I GRADUATED!

If the title didn't give it away-- I graduated yesterday! I am officially no longer a student at Clemson University. A lot of people have asked me how I feel about that. I give the answer that probably most people give, but it is still very true. I'm both happy and sad. I'm happy that I accomplished something really important. I'm happy that I don't have to go to classes anymore when I would rather be doing anything else. I'm happy for no more midterms, no more finals, no more research papers, no more PORTFOLIOS!!! But I am sad too, for a lot of things. I am sad that I am leaving behind some amazing friends and that I wont get to see them on a regular basis anymore. I'm sad that I don't get to be in my favorite place on earth anymore, that I don't get to go to Fike for free, and that I don't get to have late night and early morning random conversations with my roomates. I'm going to miss all of that much more than I probably realize right now.
Going to Clemson has been the greatest time of my life. I have met wonderful people, grown immensely in my relationship with Christ, learned a lot (sometimes reluctantly), grown up some (also reluctantly :) ), and had the time of my life. Who ever said high school was the greatest four years of your life obviously didn't go to college. No comparison in my mind.
So, yesterday I graduated. My family was there, including my mom, dad, step-mom, step-dad, brother, sister-in-law, and grand parents. The surprise of the day was that David came to be with me too. I wasn't expecting him to come because he told me that he was planning on going on a trip out of town. He kept this story up all the way to the day of graduation. I had NO idea that he had been planning on coming all along. I was standing in line getting ready to march and all the sudden he walked up. I did a double-take when I saw him because I wasn't expecting it at all-- but I was SO happy that he came. At first I thought he had decided to come on a whim, but only later did I get to hear about the planning and scheming that went into keeping all of this a secret. Lets just say that my whole family knew he was coming, everyone except me. I thought I was pretty observant and would notice something like this-- hmm I guess not! Anyway- as a shout out to David-- you being there made my graduation a thousand times better than it ever would have been without you. You have no idea what it meant to me to have you there!! Your thoughtfulness is just one of the things I love about you. Just watch out-- I will retaliate for the sneakiness that went on for this surpise :)!
On to other things-- after the cermony we took millions of pictures, then we headed to dinner at Bonefish Grille. It was wonderful food and wonderful company!! After that I opened gifts- which I wont detail here because I'm getting sleepy. It is enough to say that I have family and freinds far beyond what I deserve- they are SUPER GREAT! So that's about it- PEACE OUT!