University of Southern California - Annenberg - Commencement 2016

"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.

 And with dad and mom Lisa.  

Add in Aunt Rose!

With the proud parents (WHY did I forget my sunglasses were on my head??).

 My beauty! 

I really love this photo of my sister, Rose, and Adrienne.  I think it's a great photo of both of them!

And finally, my beautiful graduate!  #FightOn #USCAlumni

I am so proud to call you my daughter!  

xoxo

Nikon D3300

One Year Since Trojan Family Weekend! Better Post Something! TFW 2013 Day 1

I'm not even going to TRY to explain/justify why I'm just now posting my wonderful experience at University of Southern California's Trojan Family Weekend last year.  So, without further adieu...

USC TROJAN FAMILY WEEKEND 2013 - OCTOBER 24 - 27

USC is such an amazing school.  I am SOOOOOO proud that my wonderful daughter worked her butt off and was accepted to the Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism.  So of course I was so excited to be able to go down and participate in parental activities, etc.  So much fun!

Day one, of course, involved me driving to lovely Los Angeles - or, more accurately, to West Covina which is where I got a good deal on a Marriott Fairfield Inn.  Also, I mistakenly thought it was closer to where Adie was living in Monterey Park.  haha

I got there on Friday and decided to take the train to downtown LA and 

meet up with Adrienne on campus.  

The Covina train station has a British-type phone booth.  Strange.  It was the only one I noticed down there too.  

The cutest thing was a couple of older ladies, obviously from England, were thrilled and asked to have their picture taken beside it. 

It looks a little incongruous with the LA palm trees, bikes, etc.  

And the phone on the outside, haha, but still cute. 

(ASIDE:  I'm watching the Cowboys/Seahawks game right now, but just saw that my favorite weird movie, They Live, is on.  I'm in heaven. If you haven't seen it, you should.)

My Train!  It's a big'un as we don't say in California.

The downtown train station is LA is really beautiful.  It's in a gorgeous older building with lots of tunnels, tracks, and personality.  

Upstairs is a courtyard and garden.  

I wish I took more pictures in the lower levels, but the complex was so huge I didn't want to miss my next train, which was a light-rail type that took me to campus.  I was pretty lost as it was.  I ended up asking a young man who worked there for directions and it turns out that he used to live in Rancho where I live now.  Small, small world!  We reminisced and then off I went.

I met up with Adrienne and we went for dinner at this dive deli-sandwich place that we had seen on some television show on Food Network. The place itself was kind of interesting, but the food was pretty blah.  The meat was tough and there was NOTHING to the sandwich.  Damn, lying Food Network!

Anyway, that was the end of Day 1.

The next day, Rose was flying in.  Of course we got a bit of a late start from West Covina and traffic was bad.  So Adrienne went to LAX to pick up Rose while I went to campus to register and get our goodie bags etc., before the Annenberg reception.

The Annenberg School of Communications at USC

Inside the lobby where everyone chatted while waiting for food and the Dean of the school to speak. 

The food was pretty delicious, except for one salmon sandwich 

that I didn't care for.  

This is my sis, Rose, and my kid, Adie, arriving fashionably late.

We listened to a really exciting speech from the Dean about the program and the new building that was currently being built.

And then we adjourned to the auditorium to listen to a panel presentation. I apologize, but due to the passing of time, I cannot remember the name of the Notable Person (which I apparently didn't note) on the right.

This seems an appropriate place to cut, so the rest of the day and weekend will be continued in the next post. #Fight On

xoxo