Saturday, May 18, 2013

Graduation Day

Finally, after years of being a "blur"... Brittney can finally (for a little while) slow down and catch her breath.  She has done it!  She has her Bachelor's Degree.

Right out of high school, Brittney attended community college in San Antonio.  Lets just say she wasn't putting her best effort into it and leave it at that, shall we?

She moved back to Corpus Christi and rededicated herself to getting her education at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.  She got to work in a most singleminded way.  She studied, she volunteered, she networked, she interned... all in an effort to prepare herself for her chosen career in Accounting.

Many times these past few years, Bruce and I have marveled at her resolve to be the best she can at everything that she endeavours and WHERE has all of this energy come from???

How could she ever have doubted herself and her ability to pull off a Summa Cum Laude ranking?  We'll never have to answer that... pull it off she DID!

Here it is in PRINT!  That special little symbol next to her name designates her as graduating with highest honors!

It was easy!  Well, for US it was anyway!  We just sat back and watched her go...

Today, we sat in the stands with family and waited to catch a glimpse of our baby as she takes that proud walk...  THERE SHE IS!  That smile on her face lit us all up as we each locked our eyes on our girl.



We waited patiently as the faculty was introduced and the Mayor gave her speech... for the moment!  Here she is poised to accept her diploma, waiting those last few seconds for her name to be called, hoping desperately that she wouldn't trip in those shoes with the sticky bottoms I talked her into wearing just before we left the house earlier today...

We cheered furiously as we heard them say "Brittney LeighAnn Honeycutt, Summa Cum Laude"!  Time stood still for me as I felt like a poser, stifling the lurking pride while reminding myself that I really had nothing to do with it myself.

All of her accomplishments, all of her successes, all of her progress was made while we were living our lives.  We worked, we played... Brittney studied.  This is all Brittney.  I can take no credit for any of it.

But still... the pride comes.  It envelopes me, it overwhelms me, it lifts me up and carries me along with her as she walks that stage... What a grand moment!

Then time resumes, as we strain our eyes to get our next look at her... the Graduate!  There she is, following along in the line, toting her prize and wearing a HUGE grin!













The rest of the ceremony was fast forward it seems...  Suddenly, we were all outside in the wind on the Corpus Christi Bayfront, searching the crowd of square hats to find our Grad.

We congratulated her and beamed as others did too.  We were in a sea of joy as families and friends all around posed for pictures and hugged proud kids.

We posed for our fair share of photo ops, some even made their way to the University website!  What a great day this is!

OMG look at the time!  We have people coming to the house for a party!  We have to get HOME! We headed for the cars and joined the procession of thousands heading out to all points away from the Convention Center... we thought we would NEVER get out!

Luckily, back at the house, most of the stuff for the party was already done.  We popped the brisket into the oven and mashed avocados just as our first guests began to arrive.

Brittney has such a warm and supportive group of friends.  The house was filled with well wishers, all people who have been there for her and had their own part in making this happen.  See the rest of the pictures here.

Whew!  It's done.  Brittney has landed a great job.  She will join the fracas that is life and I know she will rise to the top of her profession as she takes the next step in getting her Master's degree... but for now... have some CAKE!

  

2 comments:

  1. We can imagine how proud you both are of your daughter .. congrats to her! Our daughter just finished her 3rd year at LSU and made the Dean's list .. woo hoo! Like you said, it's a result of our daughter's hard work but we're beaming. One more year till her graduation ... and wedding!

    Your daughter is beautiful BTW!

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    Replies
    1. Why thank you very much! All the while she was taking classes, we just took it for granted as she worked so hard. It was such a thrill to meet her teachers who all gushed over how much a pleasure she was to teach. She later (couple of days after graduation) found out that she had a 4.0 GPA. So one more Whoot Whoot for the kid!

      It's funny how similar our paths seem to be... Soon I'll be reading your post about another graduation day and sending my congrats your way. Hang in there and thanks for hanging out!

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