Right up until the time I picked up my cap and gown for graduation ceremonies, I was certain that the school was going to call, inform me that I had a few credits that I still needed to take and that I wouldn’t actually be done with College. Even now, I am still having dreams that I have not turned in an assignment to a class, or perfected my portfolio, and consequently, did not graduate. However, the truth is, I graduated! It was such a relief to hear my name called at the graduation ceremony.

That day was one of the best days of my life. Everything was just perfect. I’ll just start from the beginning. My Aunt Zanna and I have been in the Elementary Education program at Weber State together for the past two years. We have worked together on a variety of projects and have stressed the same things night and day. When I got to the morning commencement I quickly found my aunt, and we made sure we got to stand by each other.  We walked into the giant Dee Events Center where we passed all of our professors who were applauding us.

We knew that the speaker at graduation was going to be President Thomas S. Monson, so we looked around for him, until we spotted him.

If you didn’t notice, there are two other men standing near the front who we were so blessed to have at our graduation. The whole First Presidency of the Church was in attendance.  During the ceremonies, President Monson was given an honorary doctorate. After they had put the robes on him, the provost turned around and President Monson bopped him on the head with the scroll he had just been given. Such a funny man.

I also got to be by Emilee and Shelese. The other two girls who had my specific degree, Elementary and Special Education Composite Major. We had suffered through so many dull classes together and had to keep each other entertained for so long. We were sad to not get to see each other all the time.

After the main commencement in the morning the college sponsored a luncheon. My mom came up to go with me and spent the afternoon. From there we ran into my Aunt Zanna, Uncle Matt, and cousins Savannah, Isaac and Tommy.

The night before, I had come up to Ogden by myself because Caleb was having his annual computery night with his friends, playing some game. He  came up for the College Graduation ceremony. Which meant that I was able to spend the early afternoon with my momma. We had a lot of fun driving around town, getting a drink, and just laughing. I love my momma.

At 2 o’clock it was time for the college graduation. They herded us into the back room so we could hurry up and wait. We sat in the back and talked and laughed about our college experiences and tried to grasp what life would be like without case studies, IEP projects, and portfolios. The week before I had had an interview with two schools, one a high school, and one a lovely elementary school. They both told me that they would be calling by the end of the week, and it was already Friday afternoon. I had carried my phone with me all day, just in case I heard from either school. (Side note: Caleb and I were getting ready to move to Iowa for the summer, and I couldn’t go until I had a job secured for the following school year.)

Ten minutes before we headed out to the auditorium, my phone rang. Unknown number, normally I don’t answer those, but this time my heart raced and I quickly searched for a quiet spot in the room to take the call. The principal from the elementary school was on the other line. “Becca, it was a pleasure to have met you. It was so great to interview and get to know you…” then she paused, and I nearly started crying. “we would be pleased to offer you the resource position at our school..” I immediately started jumping up and down, raced to find my aunt and mouth the words to her, “I GOT A JOB!!” all while trying to internalize the instructions that the principal was giving me about where to proceed from there, needless to say, I missed a lot.

Then it was time to walk.

After graduation I found my husband and raced to him. I was going to pretend that they had called and that I was disappointed, but lets face it, I couldn’t stop smiling. Everyone came out and I got to celebrate with my mom, my sister Cate, her sweet baby, and Zanna and her family.

Afterwards, my whole family met up, including Anne and Scott and baby Parker, and we went out to eat. Caleb informed me that he had been offered great tickets to the Jazz game for the finals that night. We went, and much to our surprise, the tickets were VERY close. The benefits of Caleb being a jazzbot have been so great for us. It was such a fun end to such a perfect day. I have been so blessed.

The fun wasn’t over quite yet though. Caleb’s mom gave us plane tickets to fly out to California for my graduation present. We got to celebrate at DISNEYLAND!

Thank you to everyone who helped make my graduation such a fun treat. It was so wonderful, and I just can’t get over how wonderful my life is.