Hawaii

The day has finally arrived! We are leaving for Hawaii in exactly 12 hours! I will update whenever/if I can!

Leaving

I stayed at UConn for the last 4 days to go to an NCLEX review class and it was actually really helpful and calmed my fears... at least for a little while. I stayed in my old apartment and actually slept in Amanda's bed (she was home) instead of the couch! It was so much better!

Leaving the class today was hard. I was fine at graduation but I knew that this would be harder. I cried... figures. It is so weird knowing that I won't see so many of those people ever again. I made some great friends here and I really hope I can keep contact with them... Oh the beauty of Facebook!

So, now I am currently waiting for Amanda to arrive so that I can help her move out and give her back the keys to the apartment. Luckily, Amanda doesn't live TOO far and we will definitely make plans to see each other. Plus, neither of us have jobs so we have plenty of time!

Officially a graduate nurse.

The big day has come and gone! I graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor's degree in nursing! I sat there during the ceremony in complete disbelief about what was actually happening.

I stuffed tissues into my dress before the ceremony because I thought I was going to cry. I did well and didn't end up needing them. I did slightly tear up when our class president spoke and said "This is it! We did it! Congrats Class of 2009!" And again when we moved our tassels from the right to the left. However, I cried a lot in the week before graduation because I was so sad that my grandpa never was able to see me graduate. He was such a supporter and died suddenly in February. Here is a cute picture of me and him from a LONG time ago...
He was such an amazing person and I miss him so much. I am still in shock that he died. He was recovering from surgery in a nursing home and then on a Saturday he came down with the flu along with everyone else in the nursing home (and my dad, cousin, and a few uncles who had just visited) He died on Monday only about 10 minutes after my uncle left him. It was unbelievable devastating and I am actually feeling tears coming on now. He had a wonderful service and I was a pallbearer. He was buried next to my dad's mother (who died before I was born) in the veteran section of our cemetery.

Anyway, on a lighter note, nine other members of my friends and family were able to come to my graduation. It was a lot of fun and even though the keynote speaker spoke about tapestries and parallels to nursing for 45 minutes, it was a great ceremony. I was very anxious about walking across the stage and my heart was racing the whole time! I talked to the guy sitting next to me and he was feeling the exact same thing. Afterwards, other people told me they felt it too! It was a universal anxiety. Here is me coming down off the stage after getting my (empty) diploma case.I was so scared I was going to fall in front of everyone! My favorite part of the whole ceremony was our class president speaking. She briefly described each of our four years at school and it was quite funny! Lots of memories! I am going to miss it so much!!
Here I am after it was all over!
And to sum up the whole college experience, and just because I LOVED my dress, here is a picture of me in my graduation dress by a rock on campus that is constantly being painted...

Graduation Day

After four amazing years of college, I am graduating today with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. This is really bittersweet!

Chrissy

Just a quick note...

A friend of mine from high school was killed in a car crash today. She lost control of her car and hit an oncoming car. She was gone before she arrived at the hospital. We were very good friends in school. I haven't spoken to her in a few years though.

I am in shock, and what is even worse is that because of graduation and other school activities, I am not sure if I will be able to attend the services.

So... RIP Chrissy R.

Pinning

This past Wednesday was the pinning ceremony for my nursing class. We get our pins to welcome us to the profession and they also show what school we graduated from. It was an exciting experience and a sad one at the same time. I can't believe that I am actually about to graduate from college. I hate when people say that the years will fly by but oh my... I feel like it was just yesterday that I first met my roommate and we moved into our freshman year dorm. Here is a picture of us in our dorm room: And here is a picture of us from after the pinning ceremony: Look how much we have changed! We were so young and I can't believe all the different things that we have experienced since then. My roommate is such an amazing person and has done so many interesting things in the last four years such as going to South Africa and Honduras along with training for an Iron Man and writing a thesis ;) I am going to miss her!! Luckily, we don't live that far away from each other.

Here is another picture from freshman year. It is from move out day but it is a group picture of my closest friends with our CA and those girls are still my closest friends today!


Here we are together at the Pinning Ceremony:

I guess that is all for now, I am feeling very nostalgic and am going to be a wreck at graduation. I don't know what I am going to do without these girls in my life almost every day!

Now it is time to study for finals...