Hello From The Other Side

Hello...it's me. Ya ya, I know. It's been like a million years since I've been seen around these parts. I have good reason: the last months of senior year proved to be the worst. I took the bare minimum of classes this semester and still ended up in tears at least three times during finals week. What? But it's all over and now...*drumroll* I'M A COLLEGE GRAD! #Pitt2016

Years of schooling later, I am sitting here in a half-empty apartment room trying to comprehend what this weekend was. I submitted my last final Saturday morning (like 1 a.m. Saturday morning) and jumped right into running around for photos and grad ceremonies.

Yesterday, we all gathered in the Petersen Events Center on campus to celebrate the end of the undergrad road. It was difficult not to get emotional the minute the confetti cannons fired a the speakers blasted one last chorus of "Sweet Caroline"—the last chorus we heard as students. What made the experience even more emotional for me was the fact that I spent the ceremony sitting next to my roommate from freshman year.

I didn't really realize it until that point. She was the first person I met at Pitt—we actually met over the summer for lunch and shopping—and she was the one I stood next to as we closed the book on undergrad and opened the cover on the rest of our lives. There is no one who shaped me more than her over these last four years, and no one I would have rather stood next to during that ceremony.

So now I sit here, still not very sure what the future (not even the next few months) holds in store for me. I am both excited and nervous. But I did get this far.

<3 Ashley

So how are you?! Sorry it's been so long. :) Also congrats to my fellow college grads!