Three Ceremonies, 36 Hours
As some of you may know, I graduated last May (2015) with my BS in Business Management and a minor in Marketing. My other friends however, all were in on taking a victory lap. After a torturous year of watching them have fun in San Diego and living just about a mile or two from the beach, it was finally time for the rest of them to graduate!
Throughout my college career, I had a close knit group of girlfriends, (Kelsey, Brittany, Alex, Emily and myself) all of whom absolutely love San Diego. When I graduated, I moved back home to the Bay Area while Alex and Emily both had a semester left and Brittany and Kelsey both had a full year. Anyways, the time had finally come to celebrate the remaining graduations so I decided I HAD to go down to San Diego for a long weekend!
The weekend began when I flew down to San Diego Thursday night and was greeted by Kelsey and Brittany at the airport. You would think we hadn’t seen each other in 5 years the way we greeted each other and stayed up all night giggling.
Friday, May 13 2016
The next day, Friday, was the day of Kelsey’s graduation! I was working remote in the morning while simultaneously getting ready for the graduation ceremony at 3:00PM. Thankfully, we made a quick stop at Vons to get the necessary refreshments and were soon on our way to a friend’s house right by the graduation venue.
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After rounds and rounds of mimosas, we finally made our way to Viejas Arena where the graduation ceremony took place. Brittany and I quickly found our seats only to abandon them the second we saw Kelsey walk in! In my slightly intoxicated stupor, I immediately pulled a proud mama bear and started crying watching Kelsey walk in dressed in her Graduation best.
If you’ve ever been to a graduation ceremony, you know how lengthy they are. Luckily for us, Kelsey was towards the beginning of the name calling and she snuck out after her name was called and we were off to meet our Graduate! (I got lucky and ran into one of my other best friends after finding Kelsey and her family).
After taking pictures outside for a few minutes, we immediately made our way to the next and most highly anticipated stop…dinner!
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After stuffing our faces with all of the Mexican food we could find, we headed back to Pacific Beach for the evening. Two of my best friends were graduating the next day, so they opted out of the bars and instead I met up with another group of friends I had (pictured right) to celebrate their graduations.
Saturday, May 14 2016
Following a successful first day in San Diego, I had to wake up, bounce back and attend two graduation ceremonies. First up, Brittany’s College of Sciences graduation! Like before, we whetted our whistles before the ceremony to help speed up the process. Unlike before though, Brittany got nervous after they called her name and opted out of leaving the ceremony early, leaving us to listen to names for another hour and a half…NEVER FORGIVING HER (just kidding).
Almost immediately following Brittany’s graduation ceremony, was Emily’s. Alex and I had just enough time to run to 4.0 Deli (YUM) and grab sandwiches before running back to find Em’s family to grab our tickets for the ceremony.
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Try best as we could to sit through the ceremony, Alex and I had to duck out early since Brittany had her graduation dinner towards the end of Emily’s ceremony (sorry Em)!
Talk about a stressful and exhausting two days; between running around from ceremony to family dinner and back to another ceremony and family dinner, I thought I was going to fall asleep in the middle of it all.
Despite the chaos of getting from point A to point B and then C, the night went relatively easily and we all enjoyed a night out in Pacific Beach at the bars after Brittany’s family dinner and drinks.
Sunday, May 15 2016
Sadly my final day in San Diego had come :( but I couldn’t leave without spending some time with my final Graduate, Emily! Em’s family had decided to rent out a house on the beach and throw a grand graduation party filled with a various assortment of drinks, snacks and best of all, more Mexican food! Since I hadn’t gotten to spend much time with Em the first two days, it was so nice to finally get some time with one of my best friends.
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Sadly, my flight was at 7:25PM so I only got to stay at the graduation party for a few hours, but it was quite the time!
Looking back at the long weekend, it may have been hectic and less of a vacation than I had planned, but I am so glad I was able to be there to support my best friends in what we all worked so hard for.
