Tag: graduation

Post-Grad Life (So far)

Post-Grad Life (So far)

Well, May 10th has come and gone and the world didn’t end so I guess there really is life after JMU.

Graduation weekend was a flurry of events. With all the family members coming into town and into our little apartment, things got a little crazy. Friday was the University Commencement held in the football stadium which was pretty cool. We were allowed to sit with our friends so it was nice to be able to sit with all the roommates even though we have different majors.

Saturday morning were the individual college graduations where we were able to have our names called and walk. Thankfully the weather held out and we were able to still have a beautiful ceremony on the quad.

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My wonderful family
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Thanks for everything you did for me, Mom & Dad.
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Kind of hard to see, but that’s me walking across stage!

After our respective graduation, everyone came back to the apartment for a cookout/after party (where it did finally start to rain). The Virginia parents left Saturday and the Jersey parents left Sunday… along with ourselves for a week at the beach! My parents were kind enough to let us use the beach house for the week as our graduation gift. The weather was absolutely perfect and we couldn’t have asked for a better week to be at the beach.

It’s hard getting used to saying “I just graduated from JMU” or “I went to JMU.” A lot of people at the beach asked where we were in school and it was so easy and natural to just respond “We’re seniors at JMU.” without even thinking. While being at the beach was nice, it kind of put off the real post-grad life for a little bit longer. It wasn’t until we got back to Harrisonburg that it really hit me as Laura and Paige began packing up their rooms to leave Sunday morning.

I have to admit, I am still putting off the real post-grad lifestyle a little bit longer because of Maymester, but not a day goes by where I’m not worried about what I’m going to do next or how I’m going to survive without all the wonderful people I’ve met here at JMU.

However, for the mean time I’m going to try my best to live day-by-day and figure out problems as they come to me and not create problems that have not even happened yet. The goal is to finish my last undergraduate class in Maymester strong and then figure out life from there.

An open letter to my roommates

An open letter to my roommates

I know I recently wrote a post about staying authentic and “open letters” have become increasingly popular, but I feel it is necessary to write this letter for the four (technically three) amazing girls I have had the opportunity to live with for the past three years.

Dear Kat, Paige, and Laura (and Lizzie),

 

I don’t know how many of you know this but when a big change is about to happen in my life, I tend to write letters to those I love in order to express in writing what I may not be able to say in person. So here I am attempting to write a letter that encompasses the past three years of our lives.

I wouldn’t know any if you if it wasn’t for Kat randomly chatting me on Facebook. I’m so grateful for that random conversation that lead us to becoming friends, Kat. Because of you I was able to meet Paige and bring another best friend into my life. And Laura, I can’t even imagine how different our lives would be if you hadn’t been brought into our lives sophomore year. Thanks for agreeing to live with us and (unknowingly) getting stuck with us for the rest of your college career.

Lizzie, even though you haven’t technically been living with us for the past two years, you’ll always be the unofficial fifth roommate. I feel so blessed to have known you in high school and coming into JMU. You helped make the transition from Richmond to Harrisonburg so much easier.

We’ve had a crazy past three years and it’s hard to believe that our time living together is coming to an end. But not our time together in general, because whether you like it or not you’re stuck with me for life. I wish I could recap all of our greatest memories here but I know you all are thinking of them anyways as you read this letter.

Thank you all for always being there for me. Thank you for listening to me cry over grades, boys, and various other drama. Thank you for understanding my anxiety and helping me work through it, no matter how irrational I’m being. Thanks for all the times you’ve gotten me out of bed, even on the days when I didn’t think it was possible. Thank you for being some of my biggest cheerleaders, from remembering when I had tests to when I had big presentations due, thank you for your constant encouragement and positive thoughts. Thanks for putting up with my gluten free diet and adjusting meals or birthdays so I would be able to join in. And lastly, thank you for letting me use your Netflix and HBOGO accounts.

Graduation is scary not just because I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but mostly because I won’t being physically with y’all all the time. Who is going to lay on the couch with me all day watching Bad Girls Club and Teen Mom marathons? Who is going to get Cookout with me at all hours of the day and night just because I want a milkshake?

I’m not worried about staying in touch because I know it’ll happen naturally. You all mean the world to me and I will be forever blessed by your friendships.

Love always, Katie

http://sarahrobertsonphotography.com
Thanks sarahrobertsonphotography.com for taking our graduation portraits!

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place…”

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place…”

Today as I was scrolling through Facebook and all the graduation posts-most of which I was ignoring-I was stopped by one classmate’s status about graduation. It was a long post but it seemed to encompass everything I have been feeling.

My classmate made the point that even though we’ll be uprooted from our home for the past four years soon, we just have to bring the JMU community with us wherever we go. She quoted the “famous” Alpha Spitzer quote that summarizes JMU perfectly,

JMU is not just an institution of higher learning, it is a spirit, it is an atmosphere it is… a way of life I am glad to say that I have lived – Alpha Spitzer, ’37

Then I went to my last Psych of Learning class and after going over information for the final, my teacher talked about the importance of education. Recently, 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped for going to school. And then there’s Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban on her way to school in Pakistan.

I always feel guilty that I’ve taken a lot of my education for granted. And more importantly, I feel like I’ve taken JMU for granted without even realizing it. I spent all of freshmen year being paralyzed by homesickness and I feel like I need another year in order to make up for the year I wasn’t in love with JMU and calling it my home. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that in just ten days I’ll be graduating. Thanks to Maymester, however, I won’t be leaving for another month. But after Maymester, I have to officially pack up my apartment and leave Harrisonburg. The feeling is definitely bittersweet.

But in the meantime, I plan on spending my time living out the rest of my senior year as much as possible with my best friends and roommates.

Love purple, Live gold.

Cap & Gown

Today I went to the bookstore to purchase my cap & gown. My walk to the bookstore was slow and I was dragging my feet. I kept thinking about how exciting it was to get our cap & gowns in high school and how different that feeling had changed. Once I was inside the bookstore I was greeted by a table holding diploma frames, JMU Alumni t shirts, and other various graduation items.

I kept walking.

Once I was handed my cap, gown, and white tassel for a Bachelor of Arts, I turned around (dazed I might add) and made my way downstairs. But when I got downstairs I saw several other dazed looking seniors walking around with their cap and gown. Like we all couldn’t believe graduation is actually happening, it’s actually here. But after talking to my friend tonight a light bulb thought happened.

In high school, the reason everyone was so excited to graduate was because we knew what bigger and better things were to come (our respective colleges). We knew how the process worked and the timeline of how the events would unfold.

But now, most people don’t have any idea what is going to happen after graduation. Unless someone is going to grad school or already has a solid job lined up, no one really has any idea what is going on. That realization is weirdly comforting. It’s nice to know that I am not alone in my confusion or intimidation of the real world. I know some people are more excited to graduate than others because they do want to be done with school and away from JMU… but for the most part it seems most seniors aren’t ready to leave.

We have roughly a month left at this beautiful campus and I intend to try and take advantage of every day.