Day Of

Sunday I graduated. Well, I had my first graduation anyway. The way NYU does their graduation is by having a graduation for each school, mine is College of Arts and Science, and then having a graduation for the entire University as well. We had our school graduation at Madison Square Garden, in the Arena, which was pretty cool. We were right in the middle of the floor, which was amazing. It was a pretty emotional day. I think college graduation is so much more significant than high school. Going from college to the real world is huge. You no longer have anyone looking out for you, no parental support, nothing. You are a real person, with completely your own life. I mean, it's a huge deal. Of course, I'm choosing to ignore the real world for a little while longer. Although, in a few ways my year off is a even more in depth look at the real world. Anyway, I got there, and we were separated by last name, just A-L and K-Z, but it meant I couldn't sit with S. my boy. I did get to sit with a lot of my best friends though. I never cried, but it was very emotional. The ceremony itself wasn't that amazing. Our President gave the worst speech ever, as did our faculty speaker who used the time to make a political statement. Our valedictorian gave a wonderful speech tho, and it was probably the most appropriate. We then finally got to walk up. It took forever, what with 1700 students, but it was wonderful to hear our names called and walk across the stage. It was all so fast. After the ceremony, my parents were supposed to come for picture time and to finally meet S's parents. He hadn't wanted them to meet originally because his parents don't approve of us dating, long story, but he had said that morning it would be good. But, my father left early to go get the car, without a cell phone. Turned out we had remembered the wrong street by 2 and he walked around for two hours, found a pay phone and called my mom. Of course she was frantic by this point and I got no after graduation pictures and the parents never met. I was beyond distraught. I mean, streaming tears upset. Not with my father, I would have left too, but just at the situation. I felt that I was at the only time in my life where this huge scary wonderful transition was being recognized, and I wasn't even allowed to have it, it was made to seem unimportant. However, after a few hours I was able to stop being upset and laugh it off a bit. It's just such an emotional time, leaving S, all my friends for that matter, the first city I've really loved, my whole life. I spent most of that night sleeping and crying-I was exhausted. However, it was a good day, if an emotional one.

The Day Before

Well, it happened. I graduated. I've been super busy, so I'm going to just give posts day by day. So, for the day before. My parents came in and I decided to take them to the zoo. My mom has always wanted to go, so I wanted to take her. We went to the Bronx Zoo, and it was amazing! It's a huge zoo, with tons of exhibits and animals, and we went to every single one. We saw pretty much ever animal you could thing of. Lions, tigers, bears, flamingos, condors, zebras, tapirs, monkeys, gorillas, SOOOOOO many. And of course, because I brought my boyfriend, the good luck charm for all things zoo, they were all active and happy. In fact, it seemed to be mating season, for we saw quite a few animals getting it on. My favorite were the turtles. You see, the male turtle gets on top, and then opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out...the whole time. It's quite a spectacle.
We even went to the petting zoo!! I got to feed llamas and goats and sheep!! It was so much fun. And then that night we had a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Laila's. It's right next to campus, and serves great Indian food with an American flair. After a delicious dinner we went to meet up with some of my friends, where we went out for a night of margaritas, which apparently were a little too much for some! And that concluded my wonderful day before graduation.

Only One More...

Well, that's it. I have one final left, and it's tomorrow. After that, I'm officially done with school. I'll be a college grad. I'm so nervous! It seems like such a huge transition, being an adult. I actually packed tonight. Granted, my room isn't even close to being cleared out, but still. As of Sunday I will only have enough things to finish out half a week. And then I leave New York, possibly forever. I feel like there are so many things I wanted to do in this city that I never did. I mean, every grad feels that way, we never take full advantage of the city. But I have my spots, my restaurants, my pieces of the home I've created. I suppose I'll miss them, but generally I have very little attachment to places or things. I'm really gonna miss the musuem of natural history. I'm REALLY gonna miss Blockheads, the cheapest, but most delicious mexican food and margaritas in this entire city. My parents are getting here tomorrow, I plan on taking them on a walk through the village to Magnolia's for some cupcakes. Then, I plan on getting my digital camera! I know this is probably the worst post ever, but I'm just so wiped from packing and studying. I'll post tomorrow about my day, but I just have to finish packing.