Oh The Places We'll Go

Yesterday's Hodgepodge got me thinking about graduations and I decided to weed through one of my attic boxes for some pictures. Killing two birds with one stone so to speak...empty an album (or three) and write a blog post while I'm at it. 

Course I went down the rabbit hole pretty far and ended up sending pictures of pictures to some of my college friends and then hubs got in on it too and invited his old roommate to come for the weekend and this is how we roll. We couldn't quite make the spontaneous visit happen this weekend, but it will happen soon. 

Back to graduations...I'm not a Carolina sports fan (Go Vols!!) but I am an Eric Church fan and he gave the commencement address at UNC last weekend. I thought it was really good and worth a listen (linked here). 

I have no idea who spoke at my commencement and I have very few pictures from the day. Based on this photo it appears there was a professional photographer there (he's over my shoulder), but I guess we chose the diy route instead. 

I do know it was exciting and I did get a job, which was after all the goal. Some people say college wasn't all that useful in terms of their future employment, but in my profession it was very necessary and of course a lot of fun too.  

Remember panty hose? Remember weeding through ten pair to find one without a run? 

My parents gave me a briefcase as a graduation gift and I loved it so much. Made me feel officially adult. This was before the cute tote bag era we're in now, and you better believe I used that briefcase. I worked for a school system and in my role I traveled to more than one school so it was nice to keep all my paperwork together.  

Somewhere there's a picture of me in my cap and gown standing with my parents but it wasn't in the boxes I pulled out today. I promise they were there-ha! I found this one taken in my sister's apartment, and I'd love to know what we're saying. 

Look at the waist on those jeans! I guess it really is true, what's old is new again. 

Hubs graduated the December after my June graduation date and here I am cheering him on. That jumper was so cute. 

Also, he wasn't the hubs yet. 

Also I'm scanning actual photos which, let's be honest were not all that great to start with, but it was the 80's and we had no idea. We didn't take many pictures while in college, or at least I didn't. I have a handful and they're a real mishmash. Here's one from a date hubs and I had out hiking someplace. I couldn't say where? 

What I can say is I was definitely a natural brunette lol. 

I feel like today's generation of young women are more polished than my generation was in terms of hair/makeup/ skincare. Maybe we weren't quite as concerned with all that because we weren't photographed 37 times a day? I'm not saying we didn't care because we did love our hot rollers, but we didn't work out, drink gallons of water, or have a ten point skin care routine before going to bed at night like girls do now. 

We did have the best music though, and I'll fight you on that if necessary. 

I do have pictures from my girl's graduations, high school and college. One of my favorite pictures of my girls was taken on the day of daughter2's high school graduation-

Beauties. 

Both girls  had incredible speakers at their high school ceremonies, that's something I do remember. At Daughter1's ceremony the speaker was the first British woman to summit Mt. Everest and then later climb all seven summits. She was phenomenal. 

Plus my daughter was given the Principal's award which was a happy surprise. He said the nicest things about her. 

The speaker at Daughter2's high school graduation was a gentleman who was blind, but had accomplished much. I can't recall the details of  his story but I remember it as inspiring. 

Hubs and I still say we own some of the real estate their university sits on or at least it feels like we should. The campus is spectacular. They had photo ops before photo ops were even a thing. 

A rose garden...

Beautiful fountains...

Same fountains, another degree....

Today I'm off to see a little boy 'graduate' from Kindergarten. I know I know, it's not a true graduation, but we celebrate all the same. Marking life's milestones brings a lot of joy. 

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. 
You can steer yourself any direction you choose."~Dr. Seuss