Graduation: De Ja Vu?

After graduation when I got the proofs, I debated over whether or not I was going to purchase the professional pictures of me walking across the stage receiving my diploma folder and the traditional in-front-of-the-flags pose. After a little deliberation with my mom and Jeff, I decided it's a once in a lifetime experience, and it was worth it.

After receiving the pictures in the mail a few weeks ago, and then my mom finding the original from my high school graduation recently, I couldn't help but laugh at myself, and then make a post about it.



Yep, that's me.

Besides realizing how much I've darkened my hair (it was blonde then, not reddish, btw...) and how glad I am that I figured out which mousse defines and controls my curls the best, I caught myself thinking about each of these times in my life. I thought, "Do these pictures reflect the achievement of finishing high school, or how much I accomplished in getting a college bachelor's degree? Do I really look 4 1/2 years older and wiser too? I know how much I've learned and grown since highschool. I didn't just learn about the human body, family life, and art history, I learned A LOT about myself, and who I am and want to be. Does this second picture reflect that?"

And then I thought about just how excited and happy I was to be done each time, and the kind of person I've become and am still becoming, and what it means to me just to say I earned a bachelor's degree.

And that was all that mattered.