Milestone Moments

Am I really an Auburn Alum? I'm still pinching myself.

Graduation

I was lucky to have all of my wonderful family members join me in celebrating this milestone.  It was a hectic weekend, to say the least, but I loved sharing it with all of them. I really felt all of their support and love during a pretty emotional few days for me.  Jim came as well and was such a good sport hanging out with my family all weekend (and entertaining Madeline).

Jim and I actually celebrated his birthday the day before graduation but he told me I wasn't allowed to make a big deal about it because it was "my weekend" 

{cindo de mayo birthday y'all! instead of a sombrero, he got a soccer ball??}

When my family arrived we all met downtown and ate at one of my favorite local places, Bizilia's... writing about it is making me crave it! Some day I will learn how they make their chicken salad...

After lunch, I headed back to my apartment to get ready while my family explored Auburn's campus.  Then, around 3:30 the whole gang headed to campus for the commencement ceremony. (My grandparent's watched the ceremony online, how sweet is that??)

Here are a few more pictures I didn't include in the first post --

{Andrew}

{sisters}

{sisters and grandpa}

{madeline - aka future Auburn grad}

{parents}

{allison - aka bff}

{2 of my favorite people ever}

{the whole family}

The next day was packing day (read: extremely stressful day). Thankfully, with the help of everybody, we were able to get most of it done in just a few hours. After all the packing was done, Jim headed to the airport to go back to D.C. and I drove to Atlanta, leaving Auburn behind.

The past few weeks have been filled with craziness. I will be doing more posts detailing all of it!
Coming Up:
Drive to Boston/Moving-In
Orlando trip
Getting settled in Boston

Graduation Preview

I am writing this as an official college graduate!

Here's a little preview, I'll put more pictures up when things calm down!

Just after graduation! I was on cloud 9!

Such a special day/weekend spent with people I love!!

I leave for the (approx.) 21 hour drive to Boston tomorrow... here's hoping for safe travels!

Where did the time go?!

I graduate on Sunday! Countdown is officially down to 2 days!!

May has been a whirlwind month already and we're only 4 days in! This month is going to be full of so many life changing experiences, I've barely had time to look back and reflect on everything and everyone that has gotten me to this point in my life... I guess that's for another blog post.  After graduation I am jumping head first into the next chapter of my life (I guess I wouldn't be me if I did it any other way).  For fun, here's a little preview of my life this May:

1. Graduate
2. Pack up & leave Auburn behind the next day
3. Begin 21 hour road-trip to Boston 3 days later (with a pit stop in Williamsburg to visit my grandparents)
4. Move into my new apartment 2 days after that
5. Fly down to Orlando for a few days of relaxing (and Harry Potter Wizarding World!!!! nbd)
6. Fly back to Boston
7. Start my new job 2 days later

Between steps 1 and 7 there are 15 days... my head is already spinning but I am so excited to see what this month brings!

{P.S.} for any family or friends that want to watch graduation (Live online) here's the link: http://www.auburn.edu/communications_marketing/graduationlive/

Life's Tough, Get a Helmet

via

This quote is so fitting about so many aspects in my life right now.

Finals are hard.
Graduating is hard.
Long distance relationships are hard.
Moving (logistically) is hard.
Moving 1,200 miles away from family & friends is even harder.

Knowing I have help to get me through all of this crazy change in the next month makes it a tiny bit less terrifying.  I still feel like I have a mountain ahead of me!

Keep Calm

Final Exams/Projects season is in full swing!!

I've had sooo many projects due this past week... every time I turn one in I get a brief moment of relief than it's right on to the next one!!

I'm trying not to get stressed out (which is pretty much impossible for me).

Staying Stress-Free During Finals

1. SLEEP

I have actually been really good about this. I have been making sure I get a full night sleep every night. Normally when I have a huge school to-do list I stay up late trying to cram everything in. This time around I've sleeping more but being much more proudctive in the hours I am working.

2. WORKING OUT

Ok well I need to do this anyways (graduation pictures and Orlando trip anyone??) but it obviously has stress-reducing powers too. Win-Win!

3. CUTTING BACK ON CAFFIENE

I am a HUGE coffee drinker... HUGE (caffiene withdrawl headaches and all). I have been trying to limit myself to 1-2 caffienated drinks a day (coffee/energy drinks) and have been really good about it! On a normal day I usually range from 1-3 cups of coffee ($$$) and when finals come around I end up ranging between 4-6 (realllllll healthy, I know). So this is a big one for me.  I'm hoping I can keep my caffiene tollarance low and avoid getting up into the 4-6 range this semester. So far so good!

4. FOCUS ON THE END GOAL

At this point in my college career (13 days to graduation), I could get straight Ds and be no better off than if I got all As (other than time I would spend beating myself up for getting straight Ds). I already have a job, which is a huge security, and my GPA can only fluctuate like +/- .2.  While I am definitely not one to sit back and coast, even with the few days remaining, knowing I already have the job/could fail all my exams and still graduate, lifts a large portion of the stress off my shoulders.

I can't really complain though, this is my last finals season EVER (unless I go to grad school)! Just have to make it through the next 13 days!

For Fun: http://8tracks.com/franklymusic/keep-calm-and-just-graduate

The Owl, The Key, The Fleur-de-lis

If I said these last 4 years in Kappa have flown by, I'd probably be lying. In all honesty, going to chapter felt like a chore most weeks. Don't get me wrong, I've made great friends and learned so much about myself being apart of it... but it really did feel like something I had to do.

That being said, three really great things came out of being in a sorority.

1. Freshman Year
2. Learning About Myself
3. My Internship

1. Freshman Year

I always joke that my mom said she wouldn't pay for college if I didn't joing a sorority (or at least rush). This is obviously grossly exaggerated but she did push me into going through Rush.

And I am SO glad I did. Auburn is only 2 hours away from my parents house but it might as well have been in a different country. Only a few people from my high school went to Auburn and I didn't hang out with any of them. I was friend-less. Rush and Kappa Kappa Gamma gave me an instant group of friends. I'm not sure what my Freshman year would have been like without that... there were pretty slim pickings in my dorm and classes.

2. Learning About Myself

There is a lot to be said about learning to live with others. Doing so teaches you about the nuances of relationships - what makes them tick, what strengthens them, what breaks them. Unless you're moving off to Antarctica, you will always be forced to live with others. This doesn't even have to mean literally living in the same house, when you work with people in an office you are spending a heck of a lot of time in a confined space with those people... if you don't know how to "live" with them, there will be issues.  To know how to do this, you have to start somewhere.  Living with girls in my sorority gave me a crash course into this.  There were definitely struggles, I will never claim to be the perfect roommate, but it taught me so much about learning to live with others.

Auburn has hundreds of organizations around campus that you can get plugged into and obtain leadership positions in.  I may be a bit biased here, but I think having a leadership position in a greek organization is a bit different... almost as if it had a little more riding on it, typically girls (and guys I'm assuming) seem to be more aware and effected by the choices of the leaders in these organizations.  My time as treasurer taught me A LOT about my strengths and weaknesses.  Organization, time management, communication, etc. etc. etc.

3. My Internship

I may be going out on a limb here giving Kappa credit for this but I promise I have a reason.  Like most things in life, getting a job is 50% preparation and 50% opportunity.  I fulfilled my end of the deal (preparation), Kappa, essentially, provided the opportunity.  Remember how I said Freshman year wouldn't have been the same without Kappa? That year I met a group of girls that I became really great friends with near the end of the year. Being friends with these girls introduced me to another set of friends outside my sorority, one of which had a parent that worked for the company I now intern with.  One day, when I was applying to any internship I could get my hands on, they mentioned their dad worked for Raytheon. Next thing you know, I'm on their website filling out an application for an internship... and, well, the rest is history.

Like I said, it might be a stretch to credit Kappa with that but if I hadn't met those new friends, who knows where I would be today... graduating without a job perhaps!

In Other News:

Just booked my flight to Orlando for after graduation... Florida here I come!

This Just In

Sending out graduation announcements soon, get excited!!

Last week was so busy school-wise. Not to mention it was absolutely beautiful in Auburn. So instead of enjoying this --

I was forced to hide myself away in the library doing this --

Graduation Countdown: 1 Month 4 Days 22 Hours 44 Minutes

Tik Tok

As graduation looms a mere 5 weeks away I feel like I should have more "To-Do" items left than I actually do.

Of the big, important things, I only have one left:

1. Graduate
2. Get a job

As far as the medium/small items, I think I'm still doing pretty well:

- graduation advisor check
- sign graduation agreement
- order cap & gown
- order grad announcements
- send out grad announcements
- find an apartment
- sublease my apartment for the summer
- pass classes
- enjoy it all

I get so wrapped up in the excitement of almost being done, sometimes I definitely forget to do the last part. So for the next 5 weeks I'm going to try and not stress about school (already got the job, just have to pass right??) and have as many fun final college experiences as possible! We'll see how that goes...