Graduation

Life has been such a whirlwind these past few weeks...from our move back from Manila and my trip to Italy with A I haven't had the time to write this post yet! In case you couldn't tell...I graduated high school!

Sam, Me, Celene, John, Mathew, Hamish, Celesty, Aliah, Nami

With pretty Momma

I was so happy my grandparents could be at my graduation

((I'm only as tall as Dad in this picture bc of my heels))

Graduation for me was June 1 aka The Day After Prom. (I promise a prom night post is coming soon!) Everything was in a whirlwind at this time...my grandparents had just arrived and my Dad was there for the first time; meanwhile Mom and I are trying to pack our entire lives into suitcases that are under-weight and I'm facing leaving the place I spent my entire high school life and my bedroom that has all of those memories becoming someone else's. You can read the open letter I wrote to the people buying our house here.

The actual ceremony itself wasn't too painful...mostly us 93 graduates focused on when to stand and sit, listening for the cues in our principal's speech. Of course, we all cried and cried during our valedictorian's speech. Some valedictorian's write a speech for the parents, or the teachers. Jolo really wrote his speech for us, Class 2016 and you don't know how thankful we all were for the box of tissues someone thoughtfully passed through our mass--before that we were using our stoles to wipe our tears and dab the mascara running down our cheeks.

Me, Celene, and Aliah after graduation

It was like Disneyworld with the headmaster and principal standing by a huge line of people to take pictures

After that, it was time to receive our diplomas. Honestly my walk across the stage is a blur I don't remember anything specific about it beyond smiling and posing before walking back to my seat. After the ceremony all the graduates gathered downstairs in the atrium to hug goodbyes to our classmates, teachers, friends, and meet up with our family. It was all very emotional as we hugged goodbye to the people we've spent the last 2+ years with.

All in all graduation was emotional--I was glad I didn't trip, sad to be leaving the life I've known for the past five years, but excited about what's coming next!

xx