Graduation

Graduation weekend turned out to be a lot more fun than I imagined! My whole family came out from Iowa to join in with the celebrations. We also had my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and Andrew’s family and grandpa join us. My incredible aunt, Angela, gets credit for this family picture, taken after commencement:

On Thursday before commencement, I attended a honors luncheon with my family and my thesis advisor, Professor Shumway. After a meal, we lined up and received medals and honors certificates. It was good practice for convocation :)

I was amazed at how cool it was to be standing with 6,001 graduates and be surrounded by blue as we lined up for commencement. Elder L. Tom Perry spoke and I was a bit sad to realize this would be the last talk I heard in the Marriott Center as a student.

On Friday we had convocation in the wilkinson center ballroom. I had the opportunity to be the student speaker, which meant I had to sit on the stage. It was incredible to see all of the graduates as they walked across the stage to get their diplomas. Each person went through a lot to walk across the stage. There was a husband, wife, sister, and father that all walked together. How cool is that?!
I snuck off the stage just in time to walk across with Andrew. It is crazy to think that three years ago we met in class and now we are graduating together and spending the rest of our lives together. I am so lucky!

The bear in the picture was given to me by my sister with its own backpack when I left for college, since she couldn’t go with me. She gave me the graduation robes this last weekend so the bear could graduate too. I have the best sister in the world!

On Saturday we took time to play and be tourists. First was a stop to look at the Provo tabernacle/temple. I was surprised to see a crowd of people there. It was an impressive site to see a huge, historic building floating 40 feet in the air.

We then went up the canyon to go slacklining. My family had never done it before but they were all naturals! This is not a good representation of our time there, but they were the only pictures I had. It was a beautiful and warm day!

Thanks for a wonderful weekend family!