Graduation Validation

Yay!  Oh the surreality of it all... I gave up on college graduation several years ago, so being the person in the mortarboard, and wearing the leis was really weird.  It did not feel real at all.  I was standing there with the tassel in my face and smiling for pictures thinking that when I looked at those pictures I'd really believe that it had happened.

Speaking of leis, I was wearing the most leis of anybody at graduation!  I always thought it was so cool to see those people at graduations with such supportive and enthusiastic friends and family that they end up peaking out from behind a huge pile of flowers and candy and $1 bills.  So last year, when Hyrum got his masters, I made him a few big yellow carnation leis, and some candy leis, in an effort to make a bigger deal out of him than he wanted.  He's a humble fellow.  One side of his family is from Samoa, too, so I felt all the more justified.  The cool thing was that the leis made it really easy to find him in the HUGE crowd, and he later commented that it was nice to have something to munch on while he was sitting through the hundreds of names!  Well, well, well!



Knowing that this is not a tradition on either side of our families, and knowing also that I would be sad to miss another (and plausibly my last) opportunity to sport a mound of leis under a flat-hat, I went ahead and made myself a bunch of leis.  The roses were on sale at costco, and they didn't have any fat yellow carnations so I went with the roses, and the fattest carnations they had, which were purple.  Then I got wrapped candy so I wouldn't have to deal with wrappers (you string the thread through both sides of the twisted wrappers so they stay on there when you wiggle the candy out.) when I inevitably snacked during the ceremony, and strung them all up on cotton string.  The best thing, though?  I wasn't the only person who thought of it!!! My mom wanted to make me some, and Rainee (my sis-in-law) and my friend Jaime both made me one!  The fact that anyone even thought of it at all made me feel so special, and getting more than the ones I made myself made me feel like SUCH a rock star!  Then I got all sortsa compliments from total strangers on how pretty my leis were, and the only prettier leis there were on an actual Islander, who was wearing a beautiful set of traditional ones.

Why are leis such a big deal to me?  Come on!  They're like wearing a wedding ring!  It shows the world that people love you.  And I have a lot of people that love me, so I made some on their behalf, and was joyously surprised by the others who thought to show their love for me in that way, too.  :)

People get excited about people that are SUUUUUPER pregnant at graduation, too.  I thought that was cute.  I and another girl were clearly and undeniably pregnant and people applauded us and kept yelling "Congratulations, little mama!" out of the crowd.  The guys in line by me kept running to get me chairs in all of the standing around before the ceremony, and as I was walking across the patio outside Energy Solutions Arena a lady ran out from behind her table to give me a WGU fan.  People are great, sometimes. :)  Which is good because flowers insulate heat surprisingly well.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my Mom, for her support.  I had 4 main supporters, but I couldn't have done this-- it could not have begun or finished-- without my mom.  She has been encouraging me to do the things I love and am good at all my life, and last summer offered to cover tuition if I wanted to go to WGU.  She offered any minute or block of hours I needed to babysit.  I had decided I didn't need a degree, and that was true, but I wanted one.  My mom knew that.  She also knew that I could do it when I wasn't so sure, and she took so many hours off of work and put off so many things that she wanted to do so that I would have someone who knows and loves Georgia, not just watching her, but playing with and teaching her.  She and my Dad have spent so much time with Georgia that when I received my diploma and shook hands with President Mendenhall, I looked up and they were waving their hands in the air in the ASL sign for "ALL DONE!"  There is nothing I could say that would appropriately convey my gratitude.  Thank you, Mom.

 My other 3 main supporters:






My husband, whose loyalty was tested to its limits by my irritability from being a student combined with how cantankerous I get in pregnancy, but never wavered-- not to mention his help in every class, on nearly every task.  I could not have finished this without you, and certainly not in 9 months. 





 


Rainee: my unendingly supportive babysitter and cheering section-- saying "Yes, bring her over" at a moments notice, even when she had a whole group of people coming over at the same time, on top of the 6 kids that already lived there, and regularly texting, "How can I help?  Do you need Georgia to come over and play?"  Plus: She made me a lei!!!




and last, but far from least...







My Dad:  Georgia's indisputable favorite.  Whose Dad says, "I'll come home from work early-- don't worry about it.  Just get ready for your test.  We'll have a great time."?  Mine.  My dad moved mountains-- I mean meetings-- to help me and make sure Georgia was always doing something awesome.

 Thank you all.  Everyone.  Its not the biggest thing in the world, but it means a lot to me, and I did not do it alone.