Big news of my life as of now: I graduated college yesterday! YES! I battled my way through finals, papers, presentations and some rough days before graduation finally came. I was lucky enough to have several members of my extended family, and of course my mom, see me graduate yesterday morning and then had a little get together at my mom's house afterward. I graduated in the Coors Events Center on campus which is actually the same place I graduated from high school four and a half years ago! The winter ceremony is fairly small which is actually kind of nice, not having to deal with as many people. Last night I continued my celebrations with some friends downtown on Pearl St. which was so much fun!
Today, after recovering from last night's festivities, I did lots of driving around town (and a couple other towns too) trying to find the rest of the Christmas presents on my list. I walked around Pearl Street for a while this evening and it's so pretty and festive right now! And speaking of pretty and festive, Heidi and I had such a Christmassy adventure last weekend in Denver. We walked around Cherry Creek mall for a little while but by the time we were surrounded by people who brought their dogs to visit Santa we decided it was definitely time to go. Haha. So then we went over to the Denver Botanic Gardens because they have a REALLY COOL light show set up there for the holidays! You can walk all around the gardens and they have so many lights up on the trees and stuff and a couple of ice sculptures and there's a whole lot of hot chocolate to be had as well :-) Every time we get together it seems to turn into a really fun and extremely ridiculous photo shoot so that night was definitely no exception. So much fun!
Now that I've graduated I have a lot of things on my list of "to do's" which is good because my fear is that when I don't have to go to school or do homework and when I'm not at work I will just get bored very quickly. So I have a long list of books to read and possible hobbies to keep me occupied, plus right now I've got Christmas shopping and such to take up a lot of time but I'm also hoping to catch up with friends I haven't seen or talked to in a long time. This semester I very much failed at staying in touch with people or having a social life in general. So if you haven't heard from me in a while please accept my deepest apologies and also please call me up because I miss so many people right now! On my list of possible hobbies I have:
*try out slacklining
*ride my longboard more often
*catch up with old friends
*read tons of books for FUN
*start playing my violin again
*go running more often
*hiking
*taking pictures all over the place of all kinds of things
*start writing my Semester at Sea stories down so that I don't forget them as time goes on
*learn to use my new matboard cutter to frame my photos
*go on short, and long, road trips
*making hemp jewelry and tie dye
Hopefully these things will keep me busy for a few months at least! Hah. And as far as my future goes, which is of course the question I am asked most lately, I'm going to be taking it small chunks at a time. The first chunk is to work here in Boulder from now until May. The next chunk will be to pack up my car full of things I want with me for the next 4+ months and drive around the country for a week or two and end up in Wells, Maine where I will (hopefully) have a job and stay in some friends' garage and just enjoy the east coast for the summer. After that....I don't know! Haven't gotten things figured out yet beyond this summer but I'm okay with that. I'll find something great that will make me happy! In fact, I've recently gotten a lesson in being careful how far ahead you plan because often times things don't turn out how you were planning or hoping, so for now I'm taking my life a little bit at a time and trying not to have too many expectations (not to be confused with hopes, dreams, and goals which I definitely DO have!) so as to try to avoid too much disappointment. Disappointments and let-downs will inevitably come along, but when I can be open to surprises and changes of plans I think I might be happier in the long run.
I've also decided that I've got some pretty amazing friends. I got to celebrate my college graduation with some friends who I've known as far back as middle school. One of the fun things about doing college in the same city where I grew up! I'm so lucky to have friends that have stuck by me that many years and we can still not only stand to be around each other but we can still have a great time, tell our stories to one another and remember stories from our past. I also deeply appreciate my friends and family who have sent congratulations and encouragement as I finish this chapter of my life and move on to whatever it is I'll be moving on to now that college is over!
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