To Celebrating Tulane

I apologize that it has taken me so long to write this post.  To say that I have had a crazy past week and a half would sure be an understatement! The Hiatt family took over New Orleans in true Hiatt form.  We ate tons of food, embarrassed a few, and had a blast!  I was lucky that my Grandma Smith, my aunt, my parents, my brother, my Hiatt Grandparents, and Hillary were all able to come see my graduation!  To be honest, I cannot believe it is over already (graduation and college both).  However, they were both unbelievably amazing.  Commencement with Dr. John and the Dalai Lama was a dream.  To make it even better the Dalai Lama stayed at the same hotel as my family and there were prayer flags all over the city.  Rather than do a long recap of the incredible weekend, here are a few photos of the high points. Enjoy!

Brunch with the Hiatts and the Goemanns at Ralph's on the Park.

The first time Ethan and my parents met and it was a success, thank God!

Mom, Dad, and me at City Park before brunch!

Holding my Gonfalon! It was such a whirlwind that my feet didn't hurt and it 

didn't get too heavy either.  It was awesome! 

 Ethan and I backstage before Commencement.

Photo shoot on the Tulane sign :)

We were front row for Commencement!

Someone is excited about Duke Law, can you tell?

Hillary and I before the diploma ceremony

Me and Annie, love her dress!

The Hiatt Grandparents, so glad they were able to come!

 Grandma and me! 

Dad is actually smiling...

Mom, Hillary, and I outside of Luke.  Best grad lunch ever!

The besties and me during Commencement. 

Definitely going to frame this! 

Ethan and I after we had graduated! 

Airboat Swamp tour, cannot believe I actually held this guy 

(his name was Budweiser lolz)!

After the crazy week in NOLA, I packed, said all of my goodbyes and got on the road to Durham.  I am so thankful that that was the last NOLA to Durham stretch we will be making for a while because the drive seemed uncomfortably long.  Good news was we got to see the apartment again and it made me so much more excited to make the big move.  I also had a job interview (keep your fingers crossed for me please) and my parents loved the area! Now, onto Europe tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

It is so hard to believe that one chapter of my life has closed and I am fresh into the next one (or I guess right now I am in the transition stage or so I keep telling myself).  Although I feel completely unprepared, I could not be more excited to create new memories and reach new goals.  As our student speaker closed his Commencement speech: 

Goodbye for now New Orleans, I cannot even try to say that I am not sad about leaving you or that tears do not fill my eyes every time I think of all of the things I already miss about you. But, I promise I will be back.  

For now,

Lindsay 

To Accepting Change

With all of these impending changes looming over me, I am really trying to embrace them and revel in the excitement of my future.  However, I am a creature of habit and I am completely terrified of change.  You're probably thinking, "Wow, Linds suck it up!" and that is what I am trying to tell myself, trust me, but, my friend, it is much easier said than done.

I recently made a trip home and it was great! Literally spent an entire day on the couch with my pups.  I watched TV, snuggled with Tuck, ate food I didn't have to buy, and spent some quality time with my past life.  Can you say incredible? People might find it weird, but might comfort zone is 100% my parent's bed.  That is easily the one place where I am invincible, content, and feel like the 12 year old kid clueless to the large, challenging world we live in.  The only problem is that the older I get the less and less often I have the chance to visit my past life of a sweet and innocent childhood.  Side note: In my mind it is considered a past life because the only things that haven't really changed are my love for pups, Full House, and ice cream and my distaste for pickles.  Most everything else about my life has been tainted by responsibility...

Alas, I am a week away from being a college graduate (cue: somber music because of all of the impending responsibility).  And I am working so hard to talk myself into all of the changes that will be thrown at me, which has mostly come in the form of me being mad at New Orleans for her awful weather, bad streets, poor infrastructure, etc.  (New Orleans, I know we are in a fight right now but I promise in two months I will deeply miss you and apologize for the resentment I feel right now.  Please forgive the only coping mechanism I find myself being able to use right now.).  To justify my feelings just a little bit, it has rained nearly every day for the past two weeks and Broadway has been under construction for months now-- my poor car is ready to jump ship and move back to the beautiful, smooth roads in Colorado.    

Today when I was packing up my room I saw the memory book I made of Sophomore year.  I flipped through it and was reminded of all of the fantastic times I have had at Tulane, especially then (I will forever tell anyone and everyone that sophomore year is the best year of college and they should do whatever they can to make it last as long as possible)! But then I remembered that I will get to make a scrapbook of all of the things I have experienced this past year and I will be able to make one of the things I will experience in the coming year, too.  Life is not over, it is just switching things up on me, keeping me on my toes.

Here is to me accepting, embracing, and welcoming these changes. And also finding a new comfort zone that is a few time zones closer.  I have 4 short, glorious, responsibility(ish)-free days until my family gets here to celebrate graduation and damn it I am going to make them count! Besides the rooms and I have a lot of Bucket list lines to check off still.  I am going to close with this perfectly timed and touching quote that Tulane sent out in their "Faculty Advice to the Class of 2013" by Dr. Latha Rajan of the School of Public Health, "Life is not going to be a smooth ride, but with a smile on your face and determination in your heart, you can achieve anything". 

For now,
Lindsay

   

To Opening Up for New Beginnings

I did it! Well, I guess I can't use this phrase in the Elle Woods context yet, until next week that is, but rather, I broke down and started a blog.  As an aspiring marketing professional, I guess I understand the importance of practicing and improving my writing skills and what better way to do that than write about my life?  If you want to stop reading now, that's fine, I don't blame you really. But I have high hopes for this blog since I WILL HAVE SO MUCH FREE TIME (see below), so hopefully it will only get better with time (like good wine for example).  The reason I have so much free time you ask? Well if you know me at all you don't need to ask, but I am graduating! Therefore, the weeks of 19 credit hours and 2 to 3 jobs/internships are long, long behind me! Am I excited? Yes! Am I terrified? Hell yeah! But, alas, it is time for me to start something new! (insert adage about all good things coming to an end, etc.).  As I have been telling New Orleans many times in the past few weeks, "I love you but we need a break".  So in honor of my first blog and the closing of a new chapter, I am going to outline for outline's sake (this may be a nod to me realizing that I won't need to outline anything again for a very long time and its a weird feeling), the parts of my life that are closing and the parts of my life that are just getting started.  I apologize in advance for this exercise and it is likely of concern to no one but me, but I am really working hard to conceptualize all of the changes that will occur in the coming weeks with the hope of smoothing the impending roller coaster of events, emotions, and uncharted territories that will be thrown at me long before I am prepared.  

Things to check off my list:

• Working at the President's Office: My longest job yet, it will be so weird leaving here.  I am not quite yet prepared for that. 
• New Orleans: Just for a little while Crescent City.  We both know its time to miss each other for a little bit. 
• Mardi Gras: I had four wonderfully beautiful Carnival seasons.  I would not trade it for the world.  Mardi Gras, I will be back.  
• Jazz Fest: Even though Dave was an incredible experience, I came, saw, and conquered this crazy, crazy festival! 
• Bug Bites: We all know that I will undoubtedly get more of these in my lifetime (hence, why I carry Cortizone-10 in my purse at all times) but I am really hoping that a few years away from my dear poisonous caterpillar friends will do me good! 
• Undergraduate classes: For most of my classes this parting is amicable, but there are a select few professors where a "Good riddance" is in order (they know who they are). But I am thrilled to not have homework at the end of every long and busy day! Oh and finals, see ya never. 
• Honors Thesis: This endeavor can easily be classified as one of the most miserable and rewarding experiences of my life.  Now that I am an expert on all things ambush marketing, I can say that I am really glad I did it.  I can also say that I am really glad I'm done with it too. 
• Riding the Bull at Bourbon Cowboy: It was a sober decision (in hindsight I'm not sure whether I should be proud of this), but we were smart enough to make the bouncer give us coupons and let us do it for free so that should count for something, right? I mean they try to charge you $5 for that... 
• Daqs on Daqs on Daqs (and even Racks on Racks on Racks-- ask Erin for that video, actually don't): So many cals, so little alcohol.  Love you Daq Shaq but I am ready for some Fullsteam action (It's a really great brewery in Durham, i'll take you if you come visit). 

I could think of these all day, moving on... (for now, I am sure I will have many a blog of all of the things I am going to miss about good ol' New Orleans). 

Ready for New Beginnings:

• Commencement: In 11 short, short days I will be walking to get my diploma.  Please cross your fingers that I do not fall in my incredibly cute, but impractical, white wedges while carrying the Gonfalon. 
• FREE TIME: I am not excited enough! With free time comes laying out at the pool (did I mention its brand new?), reading books for FUN (sorry bell hooks you didn't count as fun), catching up on all of my TV shows, working out (ode to my dear friend Reily who probably thinks I am mad at him because I have been like 2 times this year), blogging, getting 8 hours of sleep, and many more glorious things that I probably haven't even thought of yet!
• Europe Trip!: I have the best aunt in the world who is taking me to Europe for 2 whole weeks! Then I will spend a week in Italy with Ethan. I'm so excited, nervous, overjoyed, thrilled, etc. for this trip. I'm sure you can look for a post or two about the adventures post trip. 
• Apartment: I have an apartment, or at least I hope I do- we applied for it yesterday.  It is brand new and gorgeous, I can't wait to decorate it and make it mine! There will be posts on this later. 
• Pup: Wishful thinking? Yes! But Ethan promised, so I realllly realllly realllly hope that I can provide an update on this sooner rather than later.  We are looking for a young golden retriever male (bet you never guessed that?!?). 
• Career: No I do not have a job yet.  Yes, I hate admitting that when everyone and their brother asks what I am doing after graduation. Here's the outlook-->  Good news: I am getting to know more and more people in the Durham area.  Bad news: No one that I spoke to in Durham knows what openings they will have in July, so basically I have an entire month off because I cannot really start looking until I get back from Europe June 20. So the new plan is to not think about my failure as a college graduate until the plan ride back from Milan, I make no promises on that being successful, however.
• Beach: I am spending one glorious week at the beach before I move to Durham.  Part I am most excited for: hopefully getting to spend an afternoon in Charleston again.  
• North Carolina Residency: I am strangely excited to get my new license and license plate.  Ethan and I will finally be residents of the same state... weird. 
• Bills: Ugh, reality of growing up.  From my two years living off of campus I know how to pay them, my only hope is that the money will be in my account to do so... don't we all!
• Blog: Here it is! I am hopeful that this is not a New Year's Resolution that ends on January 2nd or a goal that is too lofty to attempt! 
• Family: The hardest part of all of this will be living away from my family and only having two weeks of vacation a year (don't worry I already mourned the loss of winter break in January and the loss of spring break in April), but I have a feeling that August is going to be an interesting time for me when I realize that I will not be returning to school.  

As you can see, Lindsay Hiatt's life will no longer be the same life that she has known and loved for the past 22 and a half years. A lot of seismic changes are headed her way but this girl is going to do the only thing she knows how: put her head down, weather the storm, and come up a braver and better person! 

For now,

Lindsay

Also, if you realllly are curious as to how I am feeling, Buzzfeed found a way to characterize my emotions in their "What it Feels like to be Graduating College" montage: http://www.buzzfeed.com/amdhit/what-it-feels-like-to-be-graduating-from-college-3mws.