It's officially official! Our daughter is an alumni of the University of Louisville, completing a BS in Nursing (with early high school admission into the program) at 3.5 years. Karson is a professional student and learner. These abilities come naturally to her. She works very hard, but also has the ability to retain and relate information fairly easily. She received multiple awards at the nursing pinning ceremony, but we will get to that later.
Because we weren't having a big gathering post graduation, I wanted to print a handful of graduation invitations to commemorate the event and share with family and close friends.
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| Karson was featured in UofL's social media post for graduation. How cool! |
How do you properly celebrate an out of town graduation which actually involves TWO separate ceremonies - nurse pinning ceremony and a full graduation for all students? In natural Deaton-style, with a breakfast of course.
Nurse pinning ceremonies date back to the 12th century and today is a college tradition that honors the hard work and dedication of nursing students. Because of the two ceremonies, I told our family that we did not expect them to participate in both unless they chose to. The pinning was way more personal and would be more meaningful to attend. The ceremony was also scheduled during the early afternoon which made it easy for travel.
Finding a breakfast place that could accommodate a large group (with advance reservations) on a Friday morning was a little more challenging than I thought. Most places would only do a reservation for six (6) and I needed 13. I stumbled upon The Morning Fork Restaurant, and boy, am I glad I did! They took large reservations and the reviews were awesome. I sent everyone the directions and plans were in place to meet there at 10:45AM. This would give us plenty of time to eat before heading over to the pinning ceremony.
Our food was delicious - everything from crepes, banana bread french toast, biscuits and gravy, avocado toast, and of course, a mimosa for our girl! We highly recommend The Morning Fork.
I got on TEMU a few weeks ago and ordered some fun nursing plates, stickers, and party supplies.
Oreo dessert balls for some sweet post breakfast treats.
The pinning ceremony took place at the Brown Hotel, a staple in downtown Louisville. In typical Karson fashion, she knocked it out of the park academically receiving awards for the Dean's Award for Highest Scholarship and Outstanding Leadership.
The program was digital so I took screenshots for memories.
We took over one of the beautifully decorated lobbies at The Brown Hotel and snagged some great family photos.
~PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES ~
It takes a village to get through nursing school!
We love our tribe!
After the pinning and loads of photos, we headed back to Karson's place to relax before the big event at KFC YUM! Everyone went there separate ways at this point which left Matt, Karson and I to wait until the big event at 7PM. We should've known downtown Louisville was going to be gridlocked and left a little too late to get our girl to the front door of YUM. Fortunately, most of the students and more specifically her friend group had the same issue. We dropped her off on a nearby street where her nursing buddies were so they could all go in together. It must've been fate at that drop off because at the same time, someone was pulling out of spot that wasn't metered and right on the side of the road (not too far from the entrance of YUM). Matt cleverly maneuvered the Highlander into the spot and off we went on foot.
We headed to an area that we were familiar with when we texted Karson who was already seated on the floor. She texted back and we saw her and her group of friends on the complete opposite side. However, there were lots of open seats in that area so we hopped up and made our way over.
The event as a whole was short and sweet. Because Karson and her friends were towards the back, they were some of the last students to cross the stage.
She was listed in UofL's digital program.
Funny story: the teleprompter person could NEVER get it together for the jumbotron. We thought surely he/she would figure it out by the time Karson crossed, but no luck. Everyone crossing the stage wasn't listed as the right person or major. It was sort of comical. Her group had even planned to slowly walk cross, and it still didn't help.
Of course after the event, we were all starving, but it was late which meant ONE thing - bar food. I was totally okay with that because it sounded good. Karson had planned to go out with friends, but everyone was exhausted from such a long day that it never came together. Fortunately, her bestie Jonathan was able to join us at Hauck's Bar and Grill. We enjoyed drinks and lots of apps.
We ended up staying overnight in her house before heading back the next day. It was a very special weekend.
