SUYL: Alma Maters

Today is another Show Us Your Life carnival at Kelly's Korner, and today we're showing off our alma maters!

I am a proud alumna of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia...class of 2005, if you must know. I know, I'm ancient history. Sheesh.

I grew up around Augusta, Ga, and decided about midway through my junior year of high school that I probably wanted to go to UGA. My main reasons were that I had friends already attending there who loved it, I had other friends planning to attend there (and I'm a follower), it was beautiful and picturesque, and it was only 1.5 hours from my home, which seemed to be the perfect distance. Additionally, it was HUGE, which was great because I love being anonymous and also I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I felt confident I could figure it out there. (Note: I didn't.)

I started in the fall of 2001 and it was everything I'd hoped for and more. Check out my sweet dorm room!

 Ummm...okay, so it doesn't look that great here, but trust me: it was awesome. I lived in the dorms for two years and then moved into "the 115" (pronounced one-one-five, of course) with my BFFs for the last two years of school.


If there's anything I can say for UGA, it's that it offers the quintessential college "experience." The glossy color brochures definitely do not lie, nor are they staged. People REALLY DO lay on blankets on grassy lawns, studying and napping and picnicking. It's ridiculous, really. Being a gigantic school, there is no lack of clubs, organizations, and people: you can absolutely find your niche. I found mine in the Wesley Foundation, where I made friends (and found a husband) I'll have forever.


Perhaps most importantly (and most picturesquely), there is football. Gobs and gobs of glorious UGA football. That was probably the most fun part of being an undergrad. Gamedays and traveling for away games...that was the stuff college dreams were made of. It's also pretty much the bulk of the pictures I have of college! And please note: if you think we're overdressed for a football game, you are obviously not from the SEC.

 Me, Elizabeth, Lisa Marie, Dana, and Kristina...probably 2003?

 Laura, me, Elizabeth, and Kristina at the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (aka Georgia/Florida) 2003.

Our sweet ride to Ga/Fl that year. Thanks, Elizabeth's parents!
 

 James posing with the Stone sisters (me and my sis...bottom left and top right), Lobello sisters (top left and middle), and his future-wife Kristina.


Graduation was a great day, in the sense that it marked the end of my easy, predictable life, and the beginning of a new one where I held two useless degrees and no marketable skills. Oh, to be young and stupid and picking a major again...

I absolutely loved my time at UGA. Athens is one of the most awesome cities in the world (and since I've traveled so extensively, I'm surely qualified to make that statement...), which is why in the 6 years since I graduated, I've moved exactly like 25 miles away from campus. Ambitious of me, I know. 

I have thousands more pictures, but I came across only one more that I really felt obligated to share. As you know (or maybe you don't, if you're new-- hi!), my life-goal for the past several years has been to get pregnant. When that glorious day finally comes, and then 9 months goes by and I have a baby, then you can guarantee you'll be seeing a picture somewhere along these lines: 

  

 GO DAWGS!!