GRADUATED and it feels so good!

It truly does feel so good to say that L and I are officially done with our undergrad careers. This is a goal that has been sitting around on my 30 x 30 list for awhile now and was, I believe, the first goal to make the list. Happy to finally cross that off! (: I put together a little video recap and included some pictures from our graduation day and the adventures of our undergraduate careers that led up to it.

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L and I graduated high school together in 2011 from a tiny rural high school in the middle of a cornfield, Ohio. 

(Our high school graduation, 2011)

From there, L attended a community college outside of town and I went about an hour away to a small liberal arts school. L initially started studying business, and I had decided right from the get go that I was going to study biology. Why? I had no interest (and still don't) in any particular subject or area and decided that biology would be a good STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) degree to have. It's a great backbone should I decide to further my education.

(First year of College, 2012)
After my freshman year, I moved back home and decided to finish up my associate in science degree at the same community college as L. Not only did I save THOUSANDS of dollars in tuition, I was able to work enough so save money for a potential move to the east cost. L had earned an associate in applied business, and I had earned an associate in science.

(Community College graduation, 2013)
Upon graduating from community college, L and I picked 5 random cities, and decided it was Boston where we wanted to finish up our undergrad careers. Boston is young, exciting, and offers something for everyone. We didn't want to live on a typical "college campus" which was something that Boston could offer. The entire city was our campus. We were able to go anywhere we wanted, whenever we wanted. We didn't need cars and were able to run down and grab a cannoli at 2am if our hearts desired. Boston it was!

(Trip to Boston for orientation, 2013)
L and I made the big move to Boston in the summer of 2013 and began classes in the fall. It was my first year there when organic chemistry decided for me that I wasn't that interested in science after all. That class was brutal, and if it wasn't for the curve, I probably would have had to retaken both semesters of it. Because of crazy high cost of living and school expenses, I went to school part time for the remaining three years and worked full time as a realtor and bartender to help make financial ends meet. I believe L did a few of his semesters full time as well as working full time, because he's superman. L decided a year or two in that his true passion was in finance, and reorganized his class schedule to accommodate his finance major. I figured out years in advance that I didn't have much interest in biology, but told myself that I would see it though and earn that degree!
So here we are today, 5 years later with our beautiful, hard earned pieces of paper, and BIG smiles on our faces! We are so thrilled to be finished, as we have been looking forward to this for a long time!

On to the next adventure!