Nursing Pinning and Graduation

In case you missed my lovely toast yesterday and are therefore in the dark, I graduated this past weekend!
And it feels amazing to be able to say that I officially have a BSN.
This is going to be a very picture heavy post, but this is one of those posts that needs it and stay tuned because at the end, I'll tell you what I'll be doing next!
If you're not familiar, a Pinning Ceremony or Nursing Convocation is a special ceremony just for nurses to welcome nurses into the profession. Essentially, we say a pledge and get pinned by a professor of our school as a symbol that we are officially nurses (of course it's not TECHNICALLY official until we pass boards)
My school does that before the actual college graduation.

Above is when we entered into the ballroom where the ceremony was held.

On the left is one of our amazing advisers. I met with her after one of our critical care tests, which I bombed horribly after studying from 5-12 hours a day for the previous two weeks. I literally broke down in her office and she sat with me for about two hours, making all of her other appointments wait.

On the right is when I got pinned by my critical care teacher. When I saw she was the one that was going to pin me, I got so excited! As she put my pin on my gown, she was like "I'm so proud of you! You did it!" and then gave me a huge hug!

Here is where we say the pledge. We simply hold our right hands up and say it at the same time together. It's really long or I'd post it here.

Then it was time for pictures! Cody was trying to be silly but my friend snapped this picture and it turned out be perfect! I met Cody the summer before nursing school so he's been here for the entire time. I'm so grateful I had him to support me through out school!

This is my younger brother. I swear there was a conspiracy between him and Cody to ruin pictures.

This is my Mom! (The woman in the blue dress) I'm so glad she was able to make it!

You already saw my mom and the woman in the picture on the right is my grandmother.

These are two of my good friends that didn't graduate with me!

And these are two friends that did!

Then it was off to graduation!

My class sitting at graduation. 

Graduation was long but at least I had fun! Someone brought "illegal" confetti that we all threw up at the end!

Here's me in my cap and gown and then with my other grandparents and then me with a wreath I made that I'll have a tutorial up for later on!

Anddd drummm rollll pleaseee!

I'M GOING TO BE A CARDIAC NURSE!

I start my job next week at one of the top cardiac hospitals in the country! I'm super excited!