Now, I know it seems like was in school forever.  If it didn’t seem that way to you, it certainly did to me.  Here’s how it worked out…

Graduated high school and should have had around 30 college credit hours including English, Algebra, Calculus, Physics, Government, Statistics, Foreign Language, Psychology, Computer Networking, Computer Information Systems and a few others.  Sadly, for reasons I still don’t understand, zero of those hours transferred to Mizzou.

I went to MU for two years and then left for California where I went to school for one year.  Leaving California for Columbia (again) I finished school with a bizarre collection of degrees (?) and minors (?), something we’re still trying to add up haha.  General Studies? Photography? Political Science? Women and Gender Studies? Fine Arts? A combination of some or all of the above? Probably.

What really matters is that on May 15th I walked across a stage. No seriously I did.  I even got a kiss from my Russian professor!

After the graduation, seven years in the making, we had a blast celebrating the graduation itself as well as the closing of my first gallery show, which, by the way, sold three of the nine prints on the wall! That’s a pretty darn good debut!

I was honored to have some of my favorite people at my graduation party.

From my parents, brother, sister-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, Jenny and her boyfriend, Micheal, Corey, Josh, Akiko, Ben and Ryan Hale, Eric and Laura, Ryan, Sam, David… who else? Korrie, Maggie, Emily, Justin Rodier, Nicole and more that I know I’m missing. Looks like my graduation party was one of the bigger Tweetups Columbia has ever seen haha.

Perhaps the best part of the weekend though was my family seeing my photography shown in the gallery.  They have been so supportive of my art and encourage me to continue to explore my passion.  Seeing my photos on a computer screen or even printed 11×17 is one thing.  Seeing them 20×30 in a 28×38 frame with gallery lighting? Something else entirely.

In the end, it was a wonderful evening. Worth the seven years? Maybe… But definitely a wonderfully memorable night.