Sara Graduated!!

My sister, Sara, graduated with her master's degree in social work on May 18th from Bryn Mawr University!!

In January, I knew that she was going to be graduating and I started looking at tickets to go home. I didn't know if they were going to be reasonably priced or if I was going to be able to get time off work but I thought was worth it because it was something that I wanted to be there for. I ended up finding really cheap tickets that even took me to PHL which is the closest airport to my house. I asked for the time off and was given it so I bought my ticket! I had told my parents but I asked them to keep it a secret from Sara so I could surprise her. I didn't know if I was going to be able to pull it off because my parents are not the best surprise keepers. Wait, let me rephrase that--my father is not the best secret keeper when it comes to these kinds of surprises. However, we were able to pull it off!

I arrived in Philadelphia the Thursday before her graduation. My parents picked me up at the airport and then we stopped at Chick-Fil-A on the way home for dinner. Sara was still unaware that I was coming home. As we pulled into the driveway, she was sitting the deck and saw the third person in the car. She soon realized, as I got out of the car, that I was home for her graduation and she was very excited that I came. It was a busy weekend home but it was worth it. On Friday, I was able to go and see one of the families I babysat for when I was living at home and oh my word, the boys have grown up so much!! Saturday was Sara's graduation and she had some friends from Cairn along with Jared, her boyfriend, come to see it which I thought was very thoughtful of them. We had a picnic afterwards at one of the local state parks and it was a beautiful evening to be out. Sunday, I went to church with my family and caught up with some people there too. We also went to my cousin's house because he and his wife were having a BBQ to celebrate the dedication service they had at their church for their daughter. I got to hold her and she is adorable!!

I left on Sunday to go back to Vienna and arrived Monday afternoon. Monday just happened to be Katie's birthday so we went out to dinner to celebrate. I wasn't too jet-lagged because I purposefully tried to keep myself on Vienna time so that getting up for work on Tuesday morning wouldn't be as hard.

Overall, it was a whirlwind of a weekend with a lot of time spent in airports and on planes but it was worth it to be there for my sister as she completed this milestone in her life. I'm glad I had the opportunity to go back and be there for her!