Life Update - May 2008 (Part Three)

Justin's Graduation from Medical School!
On May 17, 2008, 22 loooong years of education and hard work paid off! Justin graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School! His entire family (minus 2 grandparents and 1 aunt) came down for the festivities!

The school held a super fancy banquet the night before at the Marriott Downtown. We ate until we couldn't move! Then we had dessert.

Us with Andrew, Justin's roommate, and Marketa, Andrew's girlfriend

We woke up the next morning and it was...GRADUATION DAY!!!

The graduation was held at Chrysler Hall in Downtown Norfolk...the site where I attended many ballets and performances of Peter Pan by the Hurrah Players while growing up.

Doors were to open at 8am so we all (all 28 of us!) arrived promptly at 7:30 to make sure we were first in line, which we were. You couldn't save any seats so if you wanted to sit together, you had to show up together. Doors opened and we rushed in and scored the entire row directly behind the taped off area for the students to sit. Everyone else's families and friends sauntered in and filled the rows behind us, until the entire first floor seating was filled! This wouldn't matter at all, unless the Usher came up to you and said "I'm sorry we didn't rope off enough seats for the students. All 28 of you will have to find seats elsewhere."

WHAT?!?! IS HE SERIOUS!?!?

I burst into tears when I realized the only place to go was up...to the balcony. 2 miles away from the stage. I was so upset and so angry! So needless to say, the pictures from inside the graduation kinda suck. The lighting was really crappy and we were in another time zone.

The tall dot to the right of the flower arrangement on stage is MY MAN GETTING HIS MEDICAL SCHOOL DIPLOMA!!!! WOOHOO!!!

Justin and his Dad

In case you're wondering why he doesn't look as smart as he does in the photo above, that's because this was taken before he had graduated!
After graduation, we headed to Guadalajara, a Mexican restaurant on Granby St. (that is also a bar late night...and I may or may not have celebrated my 19th birthday there with my Fake ID...nothin' like goin' somewhere that makes you reminisce!) We got to spend time with Justin's family and celebrate! The day was bittersweet...Since it would be the last time we saw his aunts, uncles and cousins before we moved, the goodbyes were filled with LOTS of tears and hugs. I can't WAIT to go home and see everyone at Christmas!