Hello! I don’t really know where to begin….last week was pretty darn special. My family arrived in Miami on Tuesday and we had three full days of graduation celebration. I want to share a quick recap before making you all happy and never talking about it again. I say that now…
**WAIT- go enter my giveaway from Thursday! One person will win a Kate Spade planner and Volupsa candle in celebration of my graduation, Christmas and my 21st next week!**
90% of my extended family lives in the Northeast so I was really lucky that a few were able to fly down to celebrate. On Wednesday I showed them my beautiful campus and a few of my favorite spots in Miami, including Whole Foods of course.
We packed up my apartment before going to dinner at Red Fish Grill. It was a beautiful, secluded restaurant on the water. Highly recommend! However, it was so dark that attempting to take a picture would have been pointless. Thanks, Daylight Savings.
From the Red Fish Grill website Source
Oh, one thing I am definitely glad to leave behind in Miami….INSANE traffic every night. It took us 75 minutes to go 10 miles for dinner.
I may not be running yet, but it’s still my favorite thing
Thursday was graduation! I like lists and quick facts, so here is a breakdown of the ceremony:
Number of students graduating: 950 (a mix of undergrad and grad school)
Length of ceremony: 2 hours
Commencement Speaker: H.T. Smith; civil rights attorney and U Miami trustee
Commencement speech highlights: “I know you’re all wondering how long this is going to take, so I’m going to tell you what Kim Kardashian told her ex-husband…’Honey, this won’t take long.'”
(Serious) commencement speech highlights: “Don’t say something is impossible, say it just hasn’t been done before.”
After the ceremony we went to the Biltmore for a delicious lunch at Fontana. This was actually the first time I had been inside the Biltmore when I wasn’t disgustingly sweaty from running. The Biltmore used to be a bathroom/water break stop for me during runs, sorry realllllly not sorry. Safe to say I looked completely different today.
I opened presents and was tremendously surprised by a few gifts. My family nailed it. For my meal I ordered a steak salad (no picture) and it made me question why I don’t order steak more often. I love it but don’t think about it.
After lunch we went back to the hotel, took naps and hung around the room. In typical Emily fashion, we went to Whole Foods for a late dinner before watching Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating Person of 2015. What do you think of the 10 people on the list? Obviously “fascinating” differed from Time’s qualifications for “person of the year.”
On Friday we packed the car and made the trek back home. I was so happy to walk into a fully decorated house and immediately switched gears from “graduation” to “Christmas” mode. The rest of the weekend was spent eating, writing Christmas cards and procrastinating unpacking/cleaning my room. I’m proud to report that I was very successful in all three matters.
*Linking up to MIMM*