It is Finished

I can't believe I'm done. I am a college graduate. It really didn't hit me until the night before that I was actually leaving Statesboro for good the next afternoon. It had been an interesting week, going through so many final rituals and rites of passage but it had yet to truly set in. 

As I walked across the stage, more nervous that the announcer would pronounce my name incorrectly than about the high likelihood of tripping, I looked out at the stands and peacefully realized "I am DONE!!" No more busy work, or papers, or group projects, or meaningless assignments. I have completed what sometimes seemed to be the impossible: I have graduated college, and in three years at that! 

Graduation was a really fun day with both my family as well as the fiancé's meeting at the Phi Mu house for a cookout after the commencement ceremony. From there we went to Sweetheart Circle to take some cap and gown pictures before loading up and heading back to Florence, SC, for two weeks before I move to Atlanta!

                                   

                                      

                                     

       

Alumni Status

Tonight I became an alumna member of Phi Mu. These past three years have meant more to me than I could have ever imagined. My experiences and involvement in this amazing sorority have pushed and shaped me into someone I'm proud to be. I'm different because of my sisters. And for that, I will be thankful for eternity.

"To lend to those less fortunate a helping hand. To think of God as a protector and guide of us all...To be to others what we would they be to us..keeping true to the womanhood of love...To walk in the way of honor, guarding the purity of our thoughts and deeds. Being steadfast in every duty, small or large...and thus keeping true to the meaning, spirit, and reality of Phi Mu."

I Said YES!

Well this week has been eventful.

During the weekend of April 20th, me, my mother, and my boyfriend Christopher went to Atlanta to see my new apartment, where I would be working, and to re-establish a feel for the place. Having grown up in the area it was a really neat experience to look at my old stomping grounds and think of how new it was actually going to be. On our way back to Statesboro that Sunday, Christopher asked me to meet him in Myrtle Beach the following week. I thought this was odd, Hilton Head is much closer to Statesboro, and driving four hours to meet me was really out of his way. But he persisted and I complied.

All week I wondered, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. A hopeless romantic, I had wondered if an engagement was going to happen a few times before, but it hadn't yet. I even told Christopher to not get my hopes up, I was already thinking it was going to happen. He said he wasn't going to (liar).

The week flew by and I went home for the weekend to start painting furniture for my new home (posts to follow!). As Sunday arrived, I over analyzed every event thinking to myself "If I was going to get engaged today this would make sense..." but when I hadn't heard from Christopher by early afternoon, I figured he was still asleep from his late night working and wouldn't make it in time for us to go. So I settled in to watch a Hallmark movie with my mother, still in my dress from church.

When Christopher finally arrived, my whole family practically shoved me out the door, with me still in my church dress. We drove to The Beach House Bar & Grill, one of our favorite places for some crab legs (which Christopher barely could eat). After dinner, he surprised me by taking me to ride on the SkyWheel ferris wheel across the street. Ferris wheels have a somewhat significant meaning for us as we met at the Statesboro Fair on my 20th birthday.

I got more and more nervous each time the wheel went around, until finally on the last rotation it stopped at the top. Christopher got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him and become his wife. He pulled out the most amazing ring, and I began crying. After he reminded me to answer him, and to which I said YES!, we descended and got off the ride. Still crying, I turned to look and see my whole family waiting for us on the other side of the gate.

I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing fiance and family. They did everything to make this the best day of my life, and I can't wait for so many more to come!

Piper & Christopher

Engaged April 28, 2013--Mytle Beach, South Carolina