Monday Meditation: Graduation

I realize it’s Tuesday, not Monday.

My bad.

Who is that girl? Oh yeah, it’s me. The graduated version. Wearing a super cute cap and gown that makes me look like I have no hands!

I can’t believe I graduated just a mere two days ago. I had to be at the arena by 8:15 so my parents were supposed to get to my house at 8:00. My mom called me at 6:30 AM to say they were in Iowa City, to which I sleepily responded with something like, “You have to be shitting me.” For a little bit she had me convinced she was serious and I was panicking because I needed to shower and put clothes on and make myself look presentable because my grandparents were coming.

It all worked out okay. We used my Grandma’s handicap parking tag to get choice parking  at the arena and then waited for the doors to open. Once inside the arena I realized I had absolutely no idea where I was going, so I just kind of wandered around. Eventually I figured it out and found my friend Liz, who accidentally got at the front of the line and ended up leading the processional in. We sat in the front row for the whole ceremony and counted how many people tripped while coming off the stage.

15. 14 ladies and 1 dude.

I walked across the stage about halfway through the ceremony and after that things got pretty boring. I was very hungry and I just wanted to go!

Jason graduated from the College of Engineering, so his ceremony was held at the same time but in a different place. Between our two families (12 people in total) we thought it would be impossible to eat together. We drove to Swisher and checked out the Cedar Ridge Winery, which had plenty of room for all of us to sit together, eat pizza, and drink wine. It was a gorgeous day and we got to look over the whole winery. I really couldn’t have asked for a better day.

We tried three kinds of wine: the Royal Blush, Edelweiss, and Brianna. They were all great but I think the Edelweiss was my favorite. I enjoyed it immensely, as you can probably tell from my slightly rosy cheeks. I’m a little sad that we never went to this place before graduation because it was really so peaceful and nice, but I suppose it will give us a reason to come back this way.

I’ve been looking forward to graduating for a long time, but it wasn’t until the night after graduation that I really felt sad about everything. I was at my favorite bar with Jason and Liz and a few others who came and went and I realized that this was really the end of an era. Jason and I have to be all moved out of our house by this weekend because next week we’re flying to California, which means my days in Iowa City are limited. I’m not so sad about school being over with, but it’s all of the attachments. The places, the people, the views. Those are the things I will miss. I know Jason and I will find new versions of those things in Des Moines though–and I know the people will always be around, even if I don’t see them as much.