Graduation!

This past Friday, Tony and I graduated for the third and final time.   Even though we have been through high school and college graduation ceremonies, this experience really was the one we had been waiting for.  I remember sitting in Uris Library at Cornell studying organic chemistry thinking that medical school was an eternity away.  At the start of med school, 2012 was a fantasy time that seemed would never come.  And, sitting here typing a few days later, it still feels pretty surreal to finally be a doctor.

For the ceremony, Docapella (our medical school Acapella group that Tony and I participated in) had its final performance. 

It was pretty cool to go out in style singing the national anthem.  And, we had a lot of fun getting the ole' group together again in the days leading up to graduation.  It felt great to end on a good note (lol... bad pun).  

During the ceremony, we each received our rolled up diplomas (the REAL thing) one at a time.  When making our way to the stage, we handed a card to Dr. Severin (our dean for 1st and 2nd years of med school) with the phonetic spelling of our names for him to announce.  I think in some cases the phonetic versions were harder to make out than the real name.  Regardless, Dr. Severin made it look easy!

I snuck in a quick hug for my husband before we each were “hooded” on stage (having our graduation hoods placed on each of us by a few of the doctors whom taught us).  We all signed the “doctor’s book,” which contains the first doctors' signatures for graduating physicians from UB. 

My favorite part of the day was spending it with family and friends.  Even though we looked like we had just stepped out of the Renaissance in our silly hats, we made sure to get a bunch of pictures (thanks, Dad, for weathering the crowd to get the photos!!).  We missed my sister, Liz, but know she has been hard at work getting things underway with the new job!  Tony and I were grateful to have so many family members there to celebrate.