elle, mph!

After 3 years of prerequisites, 2 1/2 years of grad school, 3 different internships, insane amounts of studying, a few tears and a lot of laughs, I officially have earned my Master’s of Public Health in Nutrition from UNC!

My parents and in-laws-to-be drove long and far to attend my thesis presentation and graduation last week – and with them was my hubs-to-be!  Friday evening the faculty hosted a special graduation ceremony for our class where we received our RD pins, a tradition of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that is worn at special times throughout our professional careers as Registered Dietitians. It just so happened that my thesis advisor and most favorite professor, Amanda, pinned mine on me. I’ll never forget it!

After graduation, the girls and I had one last epic dinner together – only this time we invited our families (sadly, mine got cut out of the photo, boo) which means we omitted the impromptu dance party this time.

Lauren, our missing piece, is pursuing her Master’s in Georgia and couldn’t be with us to celebrate but sent along a little gift for each of us to open together at dinner.

Inside was a book of ridiculously funny group emails and quotes that she sneakily collected over the past 2 1/2 years. As you can probably tell, this is pretty funny stuff we’re talking here. I die a little every time I see this photo and read a page of our little book. (Thank you SO much, Kort!!!)

It was wonderful  to be surrounded by all of the girls, my family, in-laws and hubs-to-be the past few days. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so proud of my accomplishments and so loved before!

Now all that’s left is to do is study for and pass the RD exam. Luckily though, there’s a lot of paperwork that needs to be processed before I can sign up for – which means I’m off the hook for studying over the next few weeks.

What fun things did you get into this weekend?

PS. More on nutrition, a career change & grad school, my clinical internship, the most stressful and one of the most memorable times of the past 2 1/2 years.