Graduation 2013

Before the summer completely slips away and the significance of May 20, 2013 is overshadowed by the busyness of beginning my new job, I thought it would be good to post some pictures and brief memories from the undergraduate graduation ceremony of Seton Hall 2013.

The glory belongs to God that this day ever happened ... because it was He who sustained my life through the four years, who gave me strength for the sometimes impossible schedules, who granted me favor with my professors, who enabled me to work and learn at Seton Hall. One serious illness would have changed the outcome pretty significantly, and yet God blessed with health and energy to do what He called me to do. Learning is such a privilege - I would not trade these last four years for anything. I know I am going to miss Seton Hall. I am going to miss the shelves and shelves of books in the beautiful Walsh Library. I am going to miss many professors and many fellow students. I already miss being an official "student." But these are not the "missings" of regret. They are the impression of moments richly profitable and deeply enjoyed.

Never fear! I know that last paragraph was a near slip into dry and hopeless sappiness, but I will reserve the rest of my sappy (and excessively nerdy) college memories for private consumption. Instead, we will now turn our attention to the irrefutable facts of the case.

It was one of those days when you know you want to savor every moment but you're sure you won't. The day was extra special, because I actually had extended family members at the event to celebrate this milestone with me. The Woods spent the day with us, and it was in the words of Uncle Vince "AWESOME" to have them there. Get real - this is true love on their part. Dare to question this, and I dare you to sit through a three hour ceremony of over 1000 graduates, when you
know only ONE graduate.

All in all, it was a pretty typical graduation: You enter - you and a thousand other graduates all dressed in garb still reckoning back to medieval scholasticism. (Hold your snickers. Medieval scholasticism laid the foundations for the Reformation - just saying) You spend several minutes scanning the crowd frantically for your family. They find you and wave excitedly. They turn to each other and discuss what good seats they got and how the "detour" we took in arriving cut such a long line of traffic. Finally, everyone sits and the graduation music fades away. The official thanker thanks the parents, professors, mentors for everything they've done. Another somebody official comes up and tells you that you have done it all by yourself and because you are simply amazing (anyone recognize an immediate contradiction). We sing the National anthem; at some point, we also try to croke out the melody of the school song (who wrote that tune?!). Then there are speeches by the famous people who have done amazing things and earned honorary degrees. Finally, we get to the reading of the names. You wait through several hundred people, until the moment comes...

This is what made this graduation different from every other I've attended:  because finally it was my turn to climb the stairs and walk across the stage to shake the hand of the President and get the diploma cover. Less than 10 seconds, but a really amazing and monumental few moments - I don't think I'll ever forget. I got to the other set of stairs and the incredible feeling of "It's done!" rushed over me, just in time to be pushed in front of a green screen so that the official photographers can get a shot of you in order to make money off of you or your proud parents later. (Gotta love capitalism!)

The excitement builds as the president approaches the podium and announces the CLASS OF 2013! Everyone turns their tassel, and mine simply fell off. But despite the head-gear malfunction, I managed to savor that exciting moment too.

Then, the valedictorian gets up and tells the graduates that we can do anything we want (No, we can't. Have you seen me try to play sports?), that we, the people of Seton Hall, are a bonded family (sorry...what was your name again?), and that we just have to believe (in what?). - On a positive note, the theme of the other student speech was less cliche. Basically, he said "You have received a valuable privilege in this education. You are capable of doing great things - Prove it."

The alumni association director gets to the stage and encourages you to donate to your Alma Mater.

And it's done. The day you've worked towards for so long is over. The chapter is closed, and you turn the page to boldly write on the next.

Okay... cutting the narration (You probably only skimmed/skipped that part, didn't you?), we move to visualization.

Family photos in the front yard:

 Arriving at the IZOD center and making sure I have everything I need.

This man was the chair of the Honors department during my time there. He was the emcee.

Patiently waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Starting to file in.

The man at the podium was my thesis adviser! He got to introduce the main speaker, who turned out to be a very conservative political theorist. Very interesting.

Here I am right before I get my diploma. I was so focused that I forgot to look up at my family for a better picture. Sorry.

The actual moment on stage - displayed on the overhead TV. (The man in pink is the archbishop of Newark.)

Turning the tassel!

Dad and Aunt Robin catch-up on sibling time, while they wait for me to emerge from the student area.

Saying goodbye to a good friend and fellow future teacher, Solange

The celebrations were topped off by a celebratory dinner at Macaroni Grill! The waiter even put a candle in my dessert and tried to compose a "Happy Graduation" ditty.

It was a good day remembering God's mercies in the past and looking forward to His leading in the future. "Let there be sung then throughout the hosts, "'Non Nobis' and 'Te Deum.' ... Indeed, God fought for us."

Some Scenery from WA

Well Folks, we're in Washington again!!! And as per request, here are six pictures of the beautiful scenery of  WA. My personal favorite is Mount Rainier. And just know that these pictures can not capture the beauty of the actual mountain. You're going about your daily business and then as you turn, there is this huge mountain, this giant, that I can't decide if it's blending in with the skyline or is majorly distinct of it. It's just beautiful and extremely random.

And this is Mount Baker. Mount Rainier can be seen from the Seattle area, but if you go north to Anacortes, where my Dad's dad lives, you can see Mount Baker

In Washington State Park, ferns are the major ground cover!

And don't forget! WA is known as the Evergreen State, so there are a lot, I mean, A LOT of pine trees.

And this is also in Anacortes, WA, from Washington State Park. Again, try to remember that this is only a very small section in the exquisite panorama!!

Not Sure How to Respond

Quote from a kindergarten girl in my Sunday School class yesterday: "Do people from the Old Testament live in New York City?"

I have no clever title

Happy New Years, everyone! I would like to give the staggering statistics of this blog from last year: We had a full 8 posts. And my dear people, that is...just...dreadful. No promises, but maybe we Carlson bloggers over here can do a better job in 2013. But isn't that the way it goes? I mean, the busier you are, the less you write, and then when you look back at your journal, or your blog, you think, wow...I really didn't do anything this year!

Well well well...this post is not to bemoan the lack of ink on my journal pages from last year, or posts on the blog. This is to relate to you about our Christmas and New Years' activities and fun.

The whole Christmas holiday idea came upon me in a flurry this year (or should I say last year) around 11:01 on December 18th when I put my pencil down and handed in that Scantron sheet for my physics final. After I got home, it was time to buckle down and think about Christmas! Between the help of Julie and Amazon Prime, all my presents came in in time and I didn't have to make any of those cards with a picture of the item and the words "Coming soon!" in a pretty font beneath it. Okay, that's actually not true. One present didn't come in, but we didn't make a card, and it was because it was back ordered.

Christmas Eve was celebrated with the Rimbachs, and then we all transferred over to the church building for our second annual Christmas Eve service, where Dad was preaching. The Christmas Eve spirit was heightened by the light snow dusting that fell on the way too and home from the service. The firebush with the lights looked especially beautiful in the snow!

(This is a Swedish Almond Ring my mom made for Christmas Eve. Isn't it beautiful? And don't you wish you could taste it?)

Christmas day was spent at home, as a family. It was a gorgeous relaxing day, even if the snow from the night before did melt. We didn't need to be anywhere, or go anywhere. We drank tea out of my new Tazo mugs that Julie gave me and played Settlers of Catan (anyone played it?). Then, around 9:00 pm we joined our family on the West Coast for our annual rousing gift exchange. That was really fun. =) You can see how much fun we had: (they were trying to pretend the webcam froze)

The next day, the 26th, brought more snow and more fun as we and the Larrazabal boys transferred the celebrations over to the Morrison's house where we watched The Avengers, none of us for the first time, but for the first time as a group. Heads up if you ever watch Avengers with me: Captain America's my favorite, and I may or may not squeal during the movie. We all stayed up till the next morning, some of us till...4:15? I went upstairs to bed around 3:30...I really couldn't think straight. Another head's up: Do not play word games with Catherine at 3:30 in the morning. She comes up with words that you never knew existed (and she didn't either) and she always wins. The next morning was a calm morning of eating pancakes, water squirting fights, and pictures (with multiple and various kinds of cameras):

This is the way we play spoons. We take it VERY seriously:

Like I said. Calm.

That weekend, we had three of the Deutschs come up, and we again had fun, games and fellowship. And we made a pyramid. I don't know what took the Egyptians so long to make those pyramids. We made and disassembled ours by hand within minutes. ...wow. That was incredibly cheesy. Right. Okay, moving on.

For New Year's Eve we went to a home of a family in our church. We played Taboo and discussed the origins and pronunciations of various words. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, we drove down to York, PA in order to visit my dad's sister and her family. We were able to finally meet Patrick's lovely wife Brittany. Spending the first day of the year with extended family is a superbly excellent way to start the year...and bodes well for the rest of it! (that is called foreshadowing.)

Well, so that's a quick run through of the Carlson's holiday season. It was very busy and amazing. Now everyone is getting back to school. Today, Julie started her last semester of undergrad work and is student teaching. Andrew and Mom started a couple days after new years, and I start the 22nd.

Wait. I forgot to mention! Thrown into the holiday fun Andrew started his Eagle Scout project and we helped with our church's Senior dinner.

So there. There's the first post of 2013 and like I've said, hopefully more this year than last!

Picture Credits: Most of the pictures from the time at the Morrisons were taken by Jon Larrazabal.