Graduation

Hey everyone. I know its been a long time coming, but I thought I should post some pictures from graduation.



Walking in to the ceremony.



Just after receiving my degree.



Mark helping show off my super-huge gown with fancy wings on the sleeves. (A word of advise to future grads: Don't order the gown rental online. Go try it on in person. This was big enough for two of me.)



Huggin' my mom



Pops and me



Kristie, Jim, Maggie, and me. I'm not sure if you still read this, but thanks again for coming out you guys.


Lamy came back to Colorado to celebrate with us. It was like old times having her here. Amy gets partial credit for this because she got me a terrible job at grocery outlet when I was 14. I still remember some of the dudes I worked with there, and how much I didn't want be be like any of them. At all.



Mark gets some credit too. He got me a job at Sakata right after High School that was even worse, and had even worse dudes... one of the dudes had been my boss at Grocery Outlet... (another was Leroy... but that's another story all together. Leroy should get his own post.)

There was something else about that job that I've thought back too a lot over the years. One day on the way home from Sakata, Mark and Melinda told me that the plant manager wasn't too fond of me, and had said I didn't smile enough. That day this manager had come down from his office, walked up to me and said something about my not having enough fun. As he said this, I was sweeping up millions of little broccoli seeds that had been spilled by the drop-out coke-head idiot I was running the canning machine with. It is still perplexing to me how anyone would be having fun in that situation, let alone smiling. Well, for the last 8 years, I've been working day and night to have a job that did put a smile on my face. More than that, I've been working for a job that no one would ever question my commitment too, or enthusiasm for.



Amy, Mark, Mom, Pops, and me. I am so thankful you guys could be here for this. It means a lot to Kristie and I.


Finally,



I owe so much to Kristie. She has been my constant supporter, therapist and partner through all the years of Architecture School. She picked up life in California six years ago to come out here with me so I could chase this dream, and since then she has spent far too many nights home alone while I was in the studio. I'm forever grateful to her.

She has done more than just support my emotionally (although she has done a lot of that, too). Over the years, she has delivered changes of clothes on presentation days, bought and delivered supplies to the school, met me for dinner when I hadn't seen her in days but couldn't come home because of deadlines, mounted drawings on boards at 2am, 3am, 5am, etc., stayed up late to read and reread countless essays and applications, endured countless boring conversations about ideas for school projects, let me read terrible essay passages to her in order to get out my frustration at grading them, listened to me breakdown over the phone in the middle of the night after several days of not sleeping, helped me handle bad partners, and bad teachers, and bad courses, and my own bad attitude, spent so many days shopping with me for wood, paper, tools, and other stuff only architecture students would ever need, said nothing about all the money I had to spend on those things, and so many other little things.

Kristie did all this while she took care of our home, cared for Lacey, paid the bills, and worked full-time at a job that supported us. There were many times that I failed to tell her how much I appreciated it, and I certainly didn't always deserve it. I am so thankful for everything she does. Without her, I wouldn't have made it. Only Kristie knows how true that really is. Thanks. I love you.