Graduation!

What a day! It really was beautiful, and I got to share it with Nikelle and Whitney, two of my sweet sisters who also graduated.  Nikelle graduated in Recreation Management with an emphasis in Therapeutic Recreation. She is now working wilderness therapy with troubled youth in Utah, in below zero weather. She's pretty hard core. Whitney graduated with clusters in Accounting and Business and then went and got married a week later. She is now working in Rexburg waiting a semester or two for her husband for finish up and then move to CA (likely) for PA school. So much going on the lives of the Bird girls lately. Exciting!

It was quite the day, and brought back so many memories. It was kind of strange, however, for a few reasons. One, because it feels like I have been in Rexburg longer than I actually have, since my sister went there two years before me, and I visited her many, many times. Two, because we will be back in Rexburg later this year, so it wasn't like I was really going out into the world and leaving little Rexburg for good, hoping all the little freshies will love their time there as much I did. And third, because I didn't reeeaally graduate. I still have to pass my student teaching for it to be real. So it wont be official until April 30th. 

But, despite all those things, I do feel graduated, and I do sort of feel like we are out in the world ... at least a little bit. He we are, still in the great state of Idaho ha (not exactly an exciting or exotic place. But far enough from Rexburg to feel like real life, and close enough that moving back wont be a super pain), in a real ward, with real places of employment (for the time being) and away from life in a place where most of the inhabitants were college students that are in a constant stage of matriculation;  Neither really here nor there and not exactly knowing where to claim as home. It feels good. Not to mention that we are surrounded by nieces and nephews and my young cousins that fill Kelly's need for children at the moment. That is helpful. Oh so very helpful.

I look forward to the challenges of early 2013, mostly because they are a necessary evil but also because I think I might find I enjoy teaching more than I expected to. So here's to... that, I guess. Necessary evils that may bring great things for us Conrads. I guess that's about as good as it gets. 

And that's real life, isn't it?