Adventures through Photography: University of Southern California - Annenberg

"A dream doesn't come true through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work."
~~ Colin Powell

Oh. My. Goodness.

I really cannot quite believe it, but my baby girl (now 30! although she looks 23) has graduated from University of Southern California.

She had a spectacular GPA of 3.6 (and would have had much higher except for that damn Geology/Earthquake class she didn't even have to take! Thanks for not preparing her for a "real" university geology course ARC!)!

I know, a lot of exclamation marks but I'M SO PROUD AND HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

Clif Notes version: Because of family illness and her mother stupidly quitting her State job, she didn't go to college right away and, when she did, she was working full time and taking classes at American River College (ARC).

She worked long and hard...changing her major in the process...and finally applied to the school of her choice. Yes, I said 'school' singular. She did not have a back-up because she did not want to be anything other than a Trojan!

This didn't worry me at all because the USC Annenberg transfer acceptance rate was only about 23%. NBD /sarcasm

Not only was she accepted! But she was accepted with a partial merit scholarship because her grades!
That averaged approximately $12k per year!

LA was a little different than we expected and the costs of living were much higher. Not to mention, the overtime that my new State job had been providing was suddenly cut after her first semester, so there went most of my college money.

But we persevered and she DID IT!!
I could not be more proud of my smart, beautiful daughter!

And now, the pictures:

That's Adrienne right under the hashtags. Well, the back of her beautiful hair anyway.

Family!

The beautiful Willow Bay.

First commencement speaker and recent USC Annenberg Grad, Cody Smith.

He was so funny while introducing his mother, Judy Smith. Ms. Smith is the inspiration for the television show "Scandal".

Dean Wilson! I love this guy.

Oh they had sooooo many graduate students! And then it was the undergrads' turn.
Adrienne was near the end.

Professor Floto, one of her favorite professors, was reading the names which was very cool!

And then she walked!

Presented by Willow Bay.

Afterwards they had a lovely reception in a VERY small area. It was so crowded and the line for food was quite long so we let the grad make the choice and so we left.

It had been an extremely long morning, having arrived at USC at 6:50 a.m. and the Annenberg ceremony was finished around 2:30. Adrienne had decided to participate in the main ceremony as well, which made for a ton of standing around and then walking for her.

I did convince her to let me take some family photos before we left.

Adrienne and her sister Brianna.