My Wonderful Graduation

I had the wonderful experience of graduating from High School with my sister, Hannah, this past Saturday.  To put it quite simply, it was a wonderful day!

I really thought I was going to end up being nervous but I wasn't!  I really enjoyed every minute...of course some of those minutes were a bit more awkward or intimidating than others, but all in all I loved my graduation day!  

My major graduation highlights were:

1.  Getting to meet some of the other home school graduates.  Some of them were, quite honestly, awkward but others were funny and kind.  The camaraderie that was formed in just a few minutes of getting to know each other was something I will always remember (after all, when you're with the same row of people for 5 hours you have to get along :).  My sister and I graduated at the ceremony H.E.A.V. holds for home schoolers.  There were 198 of us graduating this year and 193 of those 198 I had never met before.  I couldn't help but think, "If every home school graduate in this room was sold out to Christ, so much could get done for the Kingdom!!" 

2.  Getting to graduate in H.E.A.V.'s graduation ceremony.  A private ceremony could've been nice but I really loved getting to graduate with 196 other home school graduates.  It helped me feel like I wasn't the only home school graduate, that there were others like me.  Plus, I loved getting to look "official" and wear the clothing called a gown that really resembles a white trash bag. :)  I loved wearing the cap too with the gold tassel.  It just felt like my graduation was real...and I was proud (not in the perverse way) to make it through high school. :)  Sure I looked awful funny in my cap and gown but it felt like the real thing, you know what I mean?

Me (2nd from left) and my sister, Hannah (behind me).

4.  I got to wear my dress!  This wasn't just any dress...this was the dress that Hannah and I searched week after week for.  We finally found the right one that was in our price range, and then Grandma kindly bought it for us!  I ordered a sky blue dress and Hannah a white one.  When they first arrived in the mail they were stuffed into this tiny little box and I only thought one dress would fit into a box that big!  But, to my surprise, both of our dresses were there!  And, of course, you must know we put them on as fast as we could.  :)   They fit wonderfully with the exception that they were a little too long.  (Grandma had them hemmed for us too! :)

I love so many things about my graduation dress.  The color, for one, is one of my favorite colors (pastel blue) and it's flattering.   I also love the layers of chiffon and the gathered waist with the accent.  All in all it's my favorite dress.  Ever.

My sister and I decided to not let anyone (other than close family and one other friend) see our dresses until we graduated.   We were originally going to get another photographer to do our Senior pictures but we chose Daddy in the end!  So, believe it or not,  my multi-talented father took our senior pictures!  And he did an awesome job!  I have always wanted to go see the cherry blossom festival in D.C.  What could be better than us in our dresses in front of hundreds of pink, flowering trees?!  Perfect photographic opportunity!!  I just couldn't pass it up!  So Daddy, Hannah, Alexis (another sister), and I went up to my grandparents house one weekend.  We were originally planning on going into D.C. but decided just to take pictures around my grandparents location (lots less traffic).  One of the reasons we stayed "local" was because the weather forecast was calling for lots of rain.  Nevertheless, we drove 1 1/2 hours to get to some pretty cherry blossoms so we weren't about to give up at some rain!!  Plus, I remember Katelyn James saying that a rainy day actually has beautiful light...and it's SO true!  The light was beautiful!!

Anyways, here are some of the pictures! :)

 Loved graduating with my sister!!

See all those cherry blossom petals on the ground?  It was lightly raining during all of these pictures, so some of the petals were falling off.  Thankfully, there were plenty of blossoms left on the tree! :)

I got to take a few pictures of Hannah while Daddy went to go scout out some more photo locations.  :)  I've got one gorgeous sister, don't I?

 My other sister, Alexis, was our pose professional.  She posed Hannah and I (for most of the pictures) and was in charge of making sure everything looked right.  She also took a few pictures of me.

 Love all these cherry blossoms!!

 I found this brick wall and was so glad we stopped here for pictures! :)

Something's a tad twiggy in my face...

 This tree that we were taking pictures under was actually in a big median strip at the entrance to a neighborhood!! 

 Towards the end of our pictures, it really started raining, so we brought out the umbrellas and kept taking pictures! :)

Okay, so I'm sorry about that long bunny trail...back to what I was talking about!

4.  I loved being exhorted by one of my favorite speakers (Rick Boyer) during the ceremony.  I've always loved listening to Mr. Boyer's seminars at the yearly convention, so I was excited to find out that he was speaking at our graduation!   This post is already getting long enough so hopefully I'll post about his exhortation to us next week.

5.  Getting to visit with friends and family at our graduation party that night.  I'm so blessed to have a loving family and many kind friends!

6.  Publicly thanking Mama and Daddy for all the work they put into us. :)  Hannah and I wanted to thank Mama and Daddy publicly once we graduated.  They did so much for us as we went through school!  We also wanted to thank them to show those friends and family celebrating with us, that they weren't forcing us to do or be someone or something....they home schooled us because they had our best interests at heart!  I could never thank them enough!!

7.  Learning that, as my parent's graduation gift to Hannah and I, we get to go to Colombia to meet our sponsored children!  When I read the note telling us that we were going to see our sponsored child, I started crying!  The sponsored child I write, Luz, said in one of her letters that she really wishes she could see me.  I wrote her back saying I wish I could to and that I'd start praying we could meet one day!  Imagine my delight to find out that I was going to see her after all! :)

So there you have an exhaustive list of what I loved about my graduation!  I'm sure I missed something but I think I got the majority of it!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Kimber :)