My fourth (and final) graduation

When I received this little package in the mail a few weeks ago I panicked.

First of all, I don't have a clue how to wear a Masters hood (thank goodness for the instructions).

Second of all, I was worried we were gonna be a Mardi Gras themed graduation.

Come to find out, the purple and gold was for LSU (as expected) but the green represented medicine.

Appropriately so. 

Josh came to town and surprised me with a few sweet gifts.

Sprinkles cupcakes and Rogue Voodoo Donut Bacon Maple Ale.

(Which was terrible, btw, contrary to what you may imagine after reading that label)

Side note: apparently Sprinkles doesn't have a "congraduations" sticker

He thought he was being witty by combining congratulations and graduation.

I just thought Josh couldn't spell.

. . . oh and Charles came to town just being plain cute

Anyways, Saturday morning my classmates and I spent our final moments together as a class transforming into what we have been aiming to be for the last two years: Physician Assistants.

It was a rather quick ceremony, but it was filled with memories that will last a lifetime. 

It really is official.

They can't fail us now.

We are Physician Assistants.

We were the first Masters class to graduate from LSU.

My family, as well as Josh's, celebrated after at Cantina Laredo. 

. . . and then we headed to my grandmothers afterwards for some potential wedding cake sampling.
(We accept any excuse to celebrate with excessive amounts of sweets)
We had chocolate praline, carrot cake, and peach cake!

Allison said Josh and I needed to practice cutting the cake for the wedding, which turned out to be great advice, doing it together is kinda hard.

(That's what she said)

I received this book for my high school graduation, and I gave it to Ellie for her high school graduation as well. 

It truly contains many of my favorite quotes of all time.

You have brains in your head. 

You have feet in your shoes. 

You can steer yourself any direction you choose. 

You're on your own. 

And you know what you know. 

And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go . . . 

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So . . . 

be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,

you're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So . . . get on your way!

I finally got my long white coat!

Even though I "officially" received my Master's degree Saturday, I had my rite of passage as a Physician Assistant Friday night. 

My classmates and I got to take off our nasty belittling short white coats and replace them with some gorgeous, fancy, mature longggggg luxurious white coats.

To say I was excited is an understatement. 

Jenna was my best friend through college and my roommate for both years of PA school.

We managed to keep each other sane most of the time and I know I definitely couldn't have survived without her.

. . . and I'm shocked Josh made it to Shreveport on time for once.

Friday afternoon Dallas traffic is usually not very nice to him.

I'm so blessed to have mom and dad to assist and encourage me to further my education! 

Trish (roommate and bridesmaid) won the Chancellor Award, which basically means she's the smartest, greatest, busiest, and coolest girl in the whole school.

(She beat out students from every department for this award, including medical students!)

. . . and this is Ellie

Our final picture in our short white coats! 

After we donned our fancy new big girl coats we all pledged the Hippocratic Oath.

. . . and then I cried a little.

We survived!

. . . and I still don't know how

It's time to be an adult

Today and tomorrow are the days I have been looking forward to for the last 27 months.

Tonight is our White Coat Ceremony where we upgrade from short white coats (which screams student) to the long white coat, which means Physician Assistant. 

Tomorrow is our graduation ceremony.

It is a little bittersweet, but much more sweet than bitter. 

Bitter: I have to be an adult now and get a real job

Sweet: After 22 long years of non-stop school, no more school

Enough of the sappy stuff, I'm just glad to be done.

I couldn't have survived these last two years without the incredible support from Jenna, Josh, and my awesome family.

I've mentioned before that our family along with two other families in our neighborhood are extremely close and we get together often for family dinners.

I graduate this week, Michael graduates from Louisiana Tech University next week, and Ellie is moving down to New Orleans to start at Tulane the next week.

Heather just got engaged and Ashley brought her boyfriend to meet the families all the way from Oxford.

It was only appropriate (and terribly cheesy) to commemorate our moving forward to a new chapter of our lives by lighting wish lanterns.

(You know, like from the movie Tangled?)

We all wrote sweet and weird messages on them, lit them, and sent them into the sky. 

(Hoping they wouldn't fall and catch the town on fire, we weren't sure if there was a burn ban or not)

We really meant to do it on the Fourth of July and we forgot, so we did them last night.

Side note: These are all iPhone pics, I really should get better about bringing my DSLR around more often.

This is SO fun though!

The lanterns all came from the dollar store, by the way, go getcha some!

Why I'll miss being a student

Even though I graduate next week, today is my last day of actually being a student.
It's bittersweet.
Yesterday was my last day in the operating room as a student.
As my going away gift, my doctor handed me a scalpel and let me amputate a patient's toe all by myself.
I felt like it was my birthday!
He trusted me to do it all, such a great feeling.

It's a little weird realizing that I have been a student for the last 20 years of my life.

What will I do knowing I don't have a test looming in the distance, or when I no longer have someone in charge of me that has the ability to decided whether I pass or fail.

I no longer have to wear that awful name tag, labeled Emily Ratcliff, PA-Student

(Remember, that one that fell in the toilet?)

When I mess up, I won't be able to shrug it off with the excuse "Oh well, I'm just a student"

. . . but then again, it will be nice to walk into a patient's room and do a knee injection without hearing "Oh, you're gonna do this? Have you ever done one before? Can I see the doctor?"

This summer I had the privilege of working with some amazing people in my hometown who taught me more than they will ever know. 

I learned how to do great physical exams, joint injections, and casting . . .

. . . but more importantly they taught me the skill of compassion and putting your patients first.

On another note, I also got to dog sit this precious seeing eye dog (it's the students obligation, right?)

. . . and we also got to enjoy the chaos that comes with Gerard Butler filming a movie in our ER.

Should I be scared that this was my fortune the other day?
A little foreshadowing, eh?

I'm not ready to be an adult!
I never thought I would be sad that I am about to graduation.
I've thought about August 11, 2012 for two entire years and the day is slowly looming.
Barf.

2012 is a big year

It's hard to believe that in the next few months I will become a Physician Assistant, a wife, and a Texas resident.

Graduation is 18 days away.

Panic attack.

I need to go read Who Moved My Cheese.

Stat.

P.S. Our lovely school didn't send us the ordering information in time so we had the privilege of printing the invitations ourselves.
Thank goodness my mother is uuuuuuber talented, she whipped these bad boys up with the help of some $2.50 textured cards from Hobby Lobby