Graduation, what's next?

Today was Whitney's (Dan's sister) graduation from Salem Hills. They had the graduation ceremony outside on their football field. It was a nice sunny day, and they even had three sky divers come and start things off which was really neat! (one of the benefits of being a brand new wealthy school I guess). It was the usually ceremony...national anthem followed by rifle demonstration thing, class president and validictorian speak, principle speaks, choir sings, then each senior takes his/her turn walking up to get their diploma where you also get/have to strike a pose and get your picture taken while they read your name. Whitney looked really cute, and didn't trip or anything. I was hoping someone would to make things a bit more interesting...but the afternoon was accident free.

The last sky diver carried the flag down with him (obviously lol)

Whitney is a great sister in law. She is so kind and easy to talk to because she can relate to really anyone. She instantly made me feel welcome in the family, and is fun to be around. After the ceremony we went back to Dan's parent's house to eat and visit with the family that had come. Whit got a brand new laptop, and Dan had put a bunch of programs on it so it would be ready to use out of the box. We had some fun with her at first because we wrapped up one of our old, excuse me, ancient, laptops and gave it to her as a joke. She was polite and laughing, but I'm pretty sure she knew something was up because I forgot to include the power cord, and the hard drive was missing. Then Dan came out with the real, new laptop, and she got much happier :)


Throughout the day I was trying to remember how I had felt the day I graduated. Mostly, I think I was relieved because as fun as high school was, I was ready to move on (and move out lol). I was ready to enjoy the summer then start college and be on my own. I don't think I was scared because I had a pretty solid scholarship and plan laid out (which never really happened like I thought it would, but that's okay because it's better :) I remember I was a bit sad that all of my family couldn't be there to see me, and see how much I had accomplished. The only thing I regret looking back is on the last day of school Tacy and I just left instead of sticking around to sign yearbooks. At the time I didn't care, but it would have been fun to look back at it now and see what everyone had written!

I thought it would be fun to put up some pics of my graduation. That night a bunch of friends and I met up at Mckell's house and took some pictures. It is so funny how people go separate ways. I have not seen most of the people in the pictures since high school...but I am glad I was there for the pics because it's so much fun to look back at them now! The resolution and quality is poor because I had to scan them in.

Tacy and me just after Graduation ceremony

The above pics were at Mckell's house; starring: Devin, Ivan, Chris, Tim, Troy, Josh, Tacy, Mckell, Alex, Megan, Alisa, and me!

The 2006 Sterling Scholars, I was foreign language

All the Brickey family that came to support DJ and me
*Side note* I later found out that Dan and his family had been in the exact same area outside the Mckay Events Center that day taking pictures because his sister Bridgette graduated with me*

Anyways, CONGRATS WHITY! Also my sister Ximena is graduating Friday, so it will be fun to see her accomplish the same thing!