Louise's Graduation

Louise graduated this past weekend!! In true HPU fashion, everything was extraordinary!

I was a lucky duck and got to leave work early on Friday and made it to High Point in time to eat dinner at Southern Roots!  Southern Roots normally is crazy busy, but graduation on top of that?  Insane.  We got there at 4:30, they don't start serving until 5:00, and the place was PACKED by 6:00.  What a fun dinner it was with all my favorite people - my mom, dad, grandfather, Louise, and her friend Rae.  The food was amazing as usual, and it was great catching up with everyone.  Not to mention the great band that started now long before we finished - the singer was a great vocalist and entertainer!  But, by far the best part of the evening was Grandfather chasing Daddy around the parking lot for paying for dinner.  Definitely up there in the top ten moment of my life I think.

Saturday started early in the morning - we were on HPU's campus at 6:30 am for the 9:00 ceremony!  The seating was outside, and those New England parents don't play - they didn't drive all the way down from Connecticut to get a poor view of their baby walking across the stage.  Mother and Grandfather camped out with mimosas and chicken minis and saved our seats.  The ceremony was VERY HPU, in that it was slightly over the top, but really pretty cool at the same time.  From the bagpipes for the entrance procession, to the speaker (we'll get to that), to having every graduate walk across the stage, and finally Clark at the end.  It was my first time seeing the president, Nido Qubein speak, and I really like him.  He has such a great outlook on life, its great that he's in education.  Again, in typical HPU fashion, they got Colin Powell for their commencement speaker.  Lets just let that sink in for a second.  Little teeny High Point got the ex-Secretary of State to come talk.  He was excellent.  He talked about the importance of education, but that education was just the base to build up, and with hard work and passion, anyone was capable of accomplishing anything.  He did go somewhat into the political realm, but that is the public servant in him.  I truly feel lucky to have listened to the speech.

After Colin Powell spoke, all 1,000+ graduates walked across the stage, which took an hour and a half or so.  While it was a long time to sit there, it was pretty neat that Louise was able to walk across the stage, and she also got to shake Colin Powell's hand!

Nido and Louise

Colin and Louise 

Aside from Colin Powell's speech, the most entertaining part of the ceremony was the bald eagle (Clark) who they had fly over the heads of all the graduates.  So Hight Point.

Clark

After the ceremony, there was lots of congratulations, pictures, parties, and one bad Sienna to clean up after she got into the trash in Louise's apartment.  What a day! 

The boys

Family!

Love this pic of Mother & Grandfather!

To round out the celebrations, we went to Print Works Bistro in Greensboro for dinner.  It was a lovely restaurant, with great food.  We were all pretty tired, so I'd like to go back again after not quite so long of a day.  Congratulations Louise for graduating, and can't wait to see all that you do in Chicago!