Saturday, August 4, 2012

Internship Graduation and Celebration

Thank yall so much for your kind words on Tuesday's post.  It's an exciting time around here, and with graduation just a week away, I'm in official party mode.  The last week of internship was pretty laid back, and the four interns did our best to celebrate together.  Here are a few pictures from our last week together...

IMG 0780Last intern coffee date!  And as my friend Christa pointed out, its fitting that the we've got both coffee and Advil on the table, as both were necessary survival tools for internship :)

IMG 0776Tuesday, the four of us played hooky and went for pedicures and cocktails.  Luckily, we found a spot that allowed us to do both at the same time!

IMG 0777Cheers to surviving a crazy year!

IMG 0782I spent the night before my last day camped out at Starbucks, given that I had no food and no furniture left in my house.  I also took advantage of the time to write thank you notes to a few special staff members who made my year on internship particularly memorable.  PS: I snagged this "dream big" stationary at Michaels, and I really love it!  I'm trying to reduce my stationary stash, but I might just have to have seconds of these :)

IMG 0785On our last day, the staff had a mini graduation ceremony for the four of us.  Though each of us will have our own official graduations at our degree granting institutions, it was a fun way to commemorate the year we spent together.  Our training director said sweet things about each of us, assigning each of us a color to match our personalities.  (Any guesses what my color was?)  We also had a huge surprise of being serenaded by the university's acapella group, and they rocked some funky acapella Adele and Florence and the Machine.  Oh my goodness, they were amazing!  It was particuarly sweet to share that experience with students, because as much as I love my coworkers, I truly love what I do because of the students.   

IMG 0786Hooray, we did it!

IMG 0790Matt was able to come down for the celebration, and it was awesome to have him there.  As my grad school journey draws to a close, I can't help but think how blessed we were to have met each other during this crazy experience.

IMG 0795So long Student Services Building; it's been real.  Though I won't miss my insanely long days and eating all three of my daily meals at my desk :)

IMG 0792Later that night, the entire staff celebrated at our training director's house, and we snapped our last picture as interns.  I can't believe we survived, hooray!

Next Friday is my official graduation, and I'm getting the party started early Monday with a sibling roadtrip.  Since I have the next few weeks off, I decided I would drive to Texas, and when my brother told me he was going to be in town this weekend for Lollapalooza, we realized it was the perfect opportunity to make the drive back to Texas a little more fun. We're stretching the trip over three days, making stops in Memphis and New Orleans, both cities I've wanted to visit for a while.  Matt is flying to meet us in Houston, and then from there, friends and family are scheduled to start arriving.  I'm definitely looking forward to sharing this experience with the people nearest and dearest to me, because let's be honest, I never would have made it through without them!

PS: If you have any suggestions for food, drinks, or to do stuff in either Memphis or New Orleans, please let me know!  Yall came through in February with the Vegas recommendations, so I'm eager for your suggestions again.  Cheers to the weekend; I hope it's a fabulous one however you choose to spend it!

4 comments:

Brady said...

Allison - I love how you work so hard and then celebrate so well when you're done!

New Orleans is one of my FAVORITE places. Try Cafe Amelie for a pretty patio and solid food...I thought the food down there was just SO GOOD in general, you really can't go wrong. For music, I liked d.b.a. We saw Glen David Andrews play there...I think he might do a weekly show...and it was so much fun. The street musicians are great, too. Check out Frenchmen Street for that - I liked it better than Bourbon Street, and it's a really short walk from all the French Quarter action. You have to go to Cafe du Monde...it just feels like a requirement and the beignets are really good. And in general, just enjoy wandering around and people watching and the architecture and the spirit. It's like no place else I've ever been. I can't wait to hear about your trip!

Nichole said...

A cafe au lait & beignets at Cafe du Monde are a must! Try gumbo and bread pudding at Mother's or maybe stop at Central Grocery for a Muffaletta and take it to the Riverfront and listen to the Steamboat Natchez play a few songs. There's really SO much to do, a one day trip isn't enough!

If you really want a taste of New Orleans Mardi Gras, get a hand granade! They're sold at stands all down Bourbon, but be careful: Just ONE can knock you down.

Congrats on graduation!!

Anonymous said...

The riverfront is awesome! I agree that Cade du Monde is a must - the begnets are yummy. And Cafe Adelaide has a wonderful breakfast/brunch. We were just there is June and I loved it. St Ann's street had one of my favorite shops with clothes, purses, scarves, jewelry, etc.

Unknown said...

Congratulations and love all your outfits in these pictures!