"Ciao Tella!": Graduation! May 29, 2012

This week I graduated from college...it's so weird to say out loud and it's still hard for me to fully grasp what that means. The last four years weren't easy and I often got frustrated being told how to live my life everyday. But now that's over and things are changing!! Yes, I will still be in the military for the next five years, but now I will be living on my own, in my brand new apartment, cooking my own meals, and driving myself to work. It's really nice knowing that I have that kind of freedom now. I will admit though that graduating was also fairly bittersweet...I'm so used to living just a few feet away from all my best friends and now I'll have to plan a weekend trip if I want to see them. I don't really plan on keeping in touch with everyone I hung out with at school...just a few select people that I'd like to keep in my life. So now I'm on my own, ready to be treated like the adult that I am. Wish me luck!

Just fooling around after the parade.

This funny parade outfit that I'm wearing is in fact as uncomfortable as it looks. Our "parades" are really only hour long torture sessions where we stand on the parade field for about an hour in the blazing hot sun and flail our swords and rifles around while people watch. It's not too interesting if you ask me but the civilians seem to love it. Did I mention that I passed out at the last one? I must have locked my knees and diverted blood flow away from my brain because before I knew what hit me I was on the ground struggling to get up. I did get up, however, which is a pretty big fete if you ask me because most people have to be dragged off the field! I was OK at this particular parade, but unfortunately, 26 of my classmates were not as lucky.