Catching a Breath

I've been wanting to blog again for a few days, but life has been so crazy. Last Sunday, Mom, Amanda and I trekked up to Chapel Hill for freshman orientation. We spent the first night catching up with some friends and stayed at their house, before heading to the University briiiight and early the next morning!

All freshmen stay in one of the North Campus dorms during Orientation, so we dropped my stuff off and went to go get checked in for the sessions. Holy goodness, I was incredibly overwhelmed. They try to tell you everything you would ever need to know (or at least it feels that way) in less than 48 hours. The first day ran from 7am-9pm, then all the families left (unless they were also staying on campus, in which case they just went and did their own thing) and we did...whatever. I ended up going back to my dorm about 9:30 and caught up on my email, Facebook, etc. before just going to sleep. That may have been the best decision I've ever made.

The second day was just as crazy and I know we were all super ready to head home and attempt to process all the information we'd been handed. I've been taking a break from coffee, but when Gen and I woke up that morning, we began walking all over campus to find a cup of coffee, since the dining hall wasn't open yet. We almost walked all the way to Franklin St before we realized that we didn't have enough time. Later that day, I saw a kid walking around with a cup of coffee NOT from Lenoir, so I asked him where he'd gotten it. Right across from Lenoir, in the student stores. UGH.

Wednesday, we sort of took a breather, before the big event on Thursday: Graduation!

Photo Credit: Miss Melissa Early

It still doesn't especially feel real yet and I'm alternately overjoyed and overwhelmed when I try to wrap my mind around it. When we were all leaving the auditorium, I looked around and realized that I will never again have a "first day" at the Newton School. That helped make it more real.

Immediately after graduation, we threw a graduation party with a lot of my school friends/teachers/neighborhood friends. Our house was full and loud--just the way we like it. (:

Friday was Amanda's graduation party and I got to see some awesome Newton School alums who figured they were cool enough to come. (: It was great to catch up with them and several other mutual friends (I think at this point, 99.9% of our friends are mutual friends) who were there.

Saturday, we had another party--this time, a joint graduation/birthday party for Maylen and I. This one had most of our family and other guests who couldn't make it to our Thursday party. We had barbecue (which made this Southern girl very happy) and some amazing cakes (courtesy of Marie & Twannette's):

From Thursday until Saturday, all four of my grandparents were in town and it was the first time any of them had been up to visit us! It was great to be able to introduce them to my friends and to show them our house and my school. Fortunately, before everyone headed back out, we managed to grab this photo:

We took about 100 pictures, but we were all looking in different directions. This one had the greatest eyes:camera ratio; maybe someday I'll Photoshop it.

Sunday, everyone went home and the four of us crashed on the couch for some most desperately needed R&R.

This week has been wonderful and super laid-back...probably more laid-back than we needed, considering that Mom and I leave for France on Tuesday...and haven't started seriously packing yet. Whoops. But it's also okay, because I've been sick for the past five-ish days. Now, I'm feeling some better, but trying to find my energy and shake the last traces of this nasty cold/fever thing. Ugh.

Speaking of France, I'm going to do my best to blog/at least check in/maybe photo barf a little/possibly while I'm gone, but I make zero promises. If you want to keep up, follow me on Instagram (@briinboots for those of you who have it) or on Twitter!

Until then!

~B