GRADUATION!!!

This is my absolute favorite picture of today, the happiest day I have ever known.


And here we go! The play-by-play of Jeanne's Graduation Day!!!

Here was me this morning. I was an absolute vision.


Every moment of today was epic. Starting from getting up at 6 AM to make myself presentable for the 8:30 convocation in the Grand Ballroom of the Sorenson Student Center. I listened to "Under the Iron Sea" by Keane on the way over to UVSC. I listened to "Atlantic" and "A Bad Dream" and remembered what it was like when I had first gotten back from L.A. and started UVSC again. That was a crazy summer. The morning was so beautiful...all of the pink trees and the new spring green that was everywhere, the air was so fresh. I was already late to get in line and when I got there I realized that I forgot my tassel and had to run to the PE building to get another one and therefore MISSED the grand entrance entirely. I literally RAN (black robes flying) into the ballroom 10 seconds after all of the other students had entered and sheepishly had to maneuver into the line through the already assembling professors. They thought it was so funny but I felt so AWFUL!!!
Here we were, lined up for the morning's convocation of the School of General Academics. (This was before I realized that I had forgotten my tassel.)

Because of being late, I was the VERY LAST person to walk across the stage to graduate. It was kind of cool, really. Because ours was the last graduating class of UVSC and I was the last one to graduate.


Me. So happy. Right after I had gotten off of the podium.



My amazing, AMAZING parents. I could have not have done this without their love. AND support.




The Fam. Thank you for coming.




My bff Vivian, I was so happy she got to be there.


Ah..it was a beautiful morning. I was so happy.


Here we were, all of us lined up to go into the McKay Events Center for Commencement Exercises.

The Commencement was amazing, more than anything though, it was the entrance of how we came onto the floor that astonished me. All of us students came through one of the lower tunnels onto the floor and we walked through a human tunnel of all of our professors.
It was one of the most inspiring and incredible human experiences of my life. I am so glad I got to have it. It really was a love fest. Everyone was proud of everyone. And the Professors that we so looked up to were all there...letting us know that they loved us, too.




The Commencement itself was long. But at least I got to sit next to my friend, Chrissy. Here is the "Changing of the Tassel", mine came right off!!!!



The beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Chrissy Keller. I love this girl.


Me with the incomparable Professor Machiel van Frankenhuijsen. He is seriously one of my favorite people on the planet.

My wonderful Dad and me, at the reception in the Liberal Arts Building. He got grapes and cheese and a brownie. I had elcaires, I admit it. OH! It was all so fun!

Ah, I am in such a daze that I can hardly keep my eyes open. My parents got to come, and to meet my favourite Professors, it was amazing. I am so glad that they got to come. My Dad and I were talking about how at one time, I was scared to death that I was never going to be able to learn how to read. "And now look at you." he said. I love my Dad.

I got home and my sister, Kath, had sent me flowers!!! :)

Wow, thank you Heavenly Father. I am so glad that I DID come back to finish school. The experiences that I got to have and the friendships that I have made are priceless to me. So much of this happened by me getting into things right under the wire. I look back on it now and know that it was the last minute decisions that allowed me to have this day. I am delirious. I think it is safe to say, that this has been, in fact, the happiest day of my life. Truly. I have never felt so fulfilled or complete as I have today.

Just one more...

Good Night.

I Graduate tomorrow...

I am in a grateful daze everywhere that I go. I picked up my black commencement robe yesterday. And my Gold and Green tassel is hanging from one of the picture frames on my wall.



Here are my Graduation Announcements

Some of the people that I gave announcements to:
*Mom
*Dad
*Gramma
*Kath
*Professor Caldiero (Humanities)
*Professor Riboldi (Spanish)
*Professor Granger (Math)
*Professor Frankenhuijsen (Pain. LOL!!!! Math)

*4:38 P.M.*
I am just back from the Graduation Rehearsal at UVSC. The north wind was popping all of the Gold and Green flags that are lining the pathways into the McKay Events Center. I walked up all of the stairs very slowly...I wanted to drink it all in. I loved everything. I will never get to do this again, not like this. There were not very many people there, I was not surprised. But I was being obedient and I went. The students looked utterly bored as the gorgeous girl with long black hair gave all of the "and you had better not be late" announcements. Everyone was wearing a hoodie, including me, due to the winter weather outside. We divided into our separate schools and followed our "leaders" out into the different buildings on the UVSC campus to go to the places of our specific convocations. I got to go through a hall that I have never been through, in the entire time that I was at UVSC. Ah...I love that place.
When all was done and I finally got outside, there was a blizzard and everyone was running to their cars. I loved it...ah! I loved it! The dark snow clouds over Utah Lake made it look more like an ocean...like a storm over the ocean. I imagine it is what England would look like with the clouds over the dark grey sea. So beautiful... .
As I drove home in the white melee, there was steam rising from the roads in unbelievable amounts...a crazy mist...like every square inch of the all roads were concomitantly breathing (it actually made me feel a little crazy). And the wind was whipping so hard from the north that I could hear the chains clanging against all of the flag poles.
My robe is hanging on my door, I have not ironed it yet, so it is wrinkled still. Looking at it...I just have to wonder...who else has worn it? It is a rented gown from a HUGE distributor of graduation apparel. And from the looks of it is at least 30-40 years old. There must be hundreds of people who have worn it as they have walked across the various graduation stages of America...all dressed in their graduation best. Who's was it before it was mine? Mine for three days. How are THEY doing? I think that I am inclined to wonder about the girls who have worn it. Are they happy now? Did they get to go into the fields that they studied so hard for?
I hope so. And what about the people who will wear it after me? What will their hopes and dreams be? I hope (and even pray) that their lives will be happy, just as the ones who wore it before me. I will say a prayer for luck, for all of those who have ever worn, or will ever wear this particular graduation gown. Even me.



As I was at the McKay Events Center for rehearsal, I looked at the other students and wondered what THEIR stories were...what they are graduating in and what they are going to be doing with their lives now. They were so young, many of them. And others, were well into their 50's and I just had to wonder...what were they doing...and I hoped for them that they would be able to do what they wanted to do in their lives. This is such an transcendental thing. It really is.

Converging

I feel compelled to write. So many things are or have been and will be converging on one spot at the same time. There is much afoot...and at hand...and ahead!!! Ah-hah-hah-hah!!! I will be graduating from UVSC on the 25th of this month. I believe it will be one of the greatest human experiences of my life. April is always a transformational month for me...cathartic, like a chrysalis. After graduation there will be a party with Teyonda and Breet and all of the crew. It will be epic. Then it is off to Europe for one month and ten days. My sister, Kath, and I will be going to Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and lastly, England. I have been looking forward to a trip like this for the past 10 years, and to think that I get to go on it now, it constantly brings tears to my eyes I am so astounded and profoundly grateful. When I get home, in July, I will be attending the next CEO Space conference in L.A., that will be at the end of July. My birthday will be somewhere in there, too.
One of the most amazing bits (I don't think that you could really call it a 'bit') is that I am going to be recording my debut album this year. I will be recording the Jazz tracks at Capitol Records studios in August, with Jack Sheldon. Then it will be off to Germany with me!!! I will be there for three and a half months, for most of the fall; recording and living there and working on material. I will be home just in time for Christmas. I have wanted to live in Germany for most of my life so, this is a dream come true for me. So many things are happening...and in such a relatively short period of time. I will be working with an AMAZING producer on my album, he has produced the likes of Celine Dion so I am so excited I actually feel a little crazy sometimes. Am I ready for all of this?
"Well, you are ready now, OBVIOUSLY!" Is what my Mom said yesterday as we were driving to Costco to buy an unholy amount of food. Yesterday night I got to watch "The Painted Veil" with Teyonda and Breet. It was amazing, and so disturbing that I couldn't even cry. Everyone go see it, it will change your life.
I am so grateful to time and for friendship...I don't know why I am waxing so sentimental today...but I am grateful for the friends that stick it out with you...the ones who keep secrets and the ones that look at you from across the dinner table (crowded with friends)with a secret look of a secret kept...after answering an awkward and touchy question perfectly, without revealing a thing. I love that.
It is Spring today. So warm and lovely. And my sister, Kath, just text messaged me from L.A. to tell me that the weather over there is "Keane Gig" weather.
I asked her if she was TRYING to kill me.