Dear Grace,
It finally happened. I am officially graduated! Today I woke up to a text message on my phone from Alyssa’s mom and realized I had turned off my alarm in my sleep! Today was her birthday, and her mom and I had plotted to make breakfast for her and then go wake her up, but I was running like twenty minutes late. So I freaked out when I realized what time it was, jumped out of bed, grabbed my car keys, and drove down to her house. Fortunately it still worked out because Alyssa had stayed up late the night before so she slept in a little later, which gave me and her mom time to make German oven pancakes and set up the breakfast table with her presents. Then we went down to her room and I jumped on her bed screaming, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
It was so funny to see her all groggy and tired like that, but she came upstairs after a minute and we had a fun breakfast together. Then, it turns out, she had a graduation gift for me, which turned out to be a GINORMOUS basket filled to the brim with tons of our inside jokes, including a framed picture of Professor Snape, a SpongeBob coloring book with dinosaur crayons, Elton John sunglasses, popcorn and popcorn containers, a DVD with all of the potter puppet pals videos on it, and a bunch of other hilarious things haha.
Well, after breakfast and a lot of laughs I went home so we could both get ready for the day and I went home and went through three outfits, trying to decide what I wanted to wear under my robe, which I didn’t realize until after graduation that no one would see my outfit anyway, so there was really no point. Well anyway, I cleaned my room and bathroom and somehow time seemed to speed by and before I knew it I was leaving for the Marriot center out in Provo.
I decided to wear my awesome blue shoes because they scream “LOOK AT ME!” and they’re super cute. The ceremony passed by in a blur, and before I knew it, I was walking out and striking a pose as they announced my name. It was also then that I realized that I had forgotten to tell Mom and Dad that I was going to be in the first group of people being announced because I was singing with the choir. So they didn’t get any pictures or videos of me, haha, and boy was everyone mad! But I don’t mind so much, the pictures you really want are the ones you take with your family and friends afterward.
When the whole thing was finally over, I made a mad dash up the stairs, avoiding the route everyone else was taking, and who should I run into at the top of the stairs but Andrea! That couldn’t have worked out more perfectly, I have to say! And so, with my dearest sister in tow, we set off in search of the rest of the family, and after much confusion and several phone calls, we finally found them. Lots of hugs, kisses, and jokes about my unexpected appearance in the first part of the announcements went around, and we went outside to take pictures, where we found Alyssa and took more pictures.
Then we all parted and went back to our house where Mom had the most amazing luau dinner prepared. She went all out with the decorations and the food and the music and everything! I have the coolest mom ever, pretty much. She has to worry about all the crap that comes with being the girls camp director and having camp coming up the week after next, but she still found time to prepare that awesome luau party, come to my graduation, AND get me an awesome gift, which was a couple of super cute jackets which I’m totally stoked about! I am so lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful mother who loves me so much. I only wish I could be as good to her as she is to me.
When we got back to my house Andrea gave me her gift, which made me laugh. It was a gray wolf, which I named Lupin Mooney (which is kind of perfect what with my love of professor Lupin in Harry Potter and the fact that his secret name is Mooney), a bottle of “seduction” perfume, which she apparently stole from Jareth, the goblin king, and a t-shirt that says, “Not if you move the stars, Mate.” (A quote from Dr. Who).
Andrea went home early because she wasn’t feeling well, so Alyssa and I stayed up watching the Robin Hood TV series until midnight, and by then I fell asleep, and she was fighting it too, so we decided to bag the whole all-nighter thing and got to bed, so she went home, and now I’m sitting on my bed writing you this letter with Snape watching me from my bedside table and Lupin guarding me on my bed.
It’s such a weird feeling to realize I’m never going back to normal school again. I tried to think of what I was going to do tomorrow before I went to Andrea’s graduation and I couldn’t think of anything to do. I’ve never felt such an acute feeling of “Now what?” I have the whole summer stretching out before me (well okay, it’s only two months and fifteen days) and I can’t think of anything to do except work and go to church. I’ll have to force myself to read and write for an hour for each each day and find other things to do to keep me occupied. Well, I’d better go, it’s two AM and I’m tired. I love you so much!
Love always,
Katie Jo
