On Friday, 5 June 2015, I graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a Masters of Arts in International Studies. I'm officially a Master! Afton Tyler, M.A., Miss Master, however you would like to address me, I'm now officially fully educated and no one can take that away. I am so excited to be finished with higher education and with an amazing two years in Denver!! From my earliest years, my family always impressed upon me the importance of education, and for that, I am eternally grateful. My academic pursuits have led me in wonderful directions, and the support of my family has been invaluable to everything I've yet achieved. I'm proud to say that I finished my Masters with flying colors, and will be starting a great job here in Denver next week to boot! I absolutely cannot wait for this next phase of life.
Pre-graduation with friends
Before our families arrived and the big ceremony took place, several of the Korbel girl crew got together to take graduation photos. We had a blast being silly, posing in our caps, gowns, and hoods, and enjoying one last hurrah together as students before graduation and before reality set in.
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| The Trader Joe's crew :) |
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| Caught off-guard with my main gal. :) |
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| Hooded!! |
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| This one is my favorite. An explosion of Korbel champagne! |
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| Champagne on the lawn |
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| Cheers to grad school!! |
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| Keeping it classy in Korbel's Cyber Café. |
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| WE DID IT!! |
Graduation with the family
My family arrived for celebrations mid-week, and we enjoyed five full days of exploring Denver and the surrounding areas, graduation shenanigans, and excellent family times. I'm so glad and grateful that the four of them were able to make it out from Washington to celebrate with me!! They made the entire experience a thousand times more special and at least that much more fun.
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| My family is the best, and we are each other's best cheerleaders! |
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| Great success! |
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| Proud parents |
A day in Rocky Mountain National Park
On one of the days of their visit, the fam and I spent the day exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove through the park, hiked around Sprague and Bear Lakes, saw the Alluvial Falls, saw dozens of deer and elk all over, enjoyed a delicious dinner at the perennial favorite, Nepal's Cafe in Estes Park, CO, and even narrowly avoided a tornado on the drive home! It was a great first exposure to RMNP for my family, and a great day of nature wanderings for all.
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| RMNP - The Tyler family approves! |
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| Sprague Lake |
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| Bear Lake |
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| Alluvial Falls |
Post-graduation hike with part of the Geneva crew / summer roommates
Since I have a week between graduation and when I start work, I convinced two of my three roommates for the summer (also two of the other nine Korbel in Geneva participants) to go for a hike on Tuesday of this week. We hiked along the Apex Trail just outside of Golden, CO and enjoyed a beautiful 7.6 mile hike through meadows and enchanted forests, as well as great views of Golden and Denver from afar.
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| The view at the apex of Apex Trail. :) |
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| Dirty hiking feet. Chacos for the win! |
I am positively thrilled to be finished with my education, and I am even more excited to have a job and to be starting work next week. Although I mourn a very short, one-week 'summer break', I will be extremely happy to have a paycheck, insurance, no homework, no essays, time to leisure read, time to camp, time to cook, the ability to save money, the ability to sleep all day on the weekends if I want to, and the ability to explore Colorado like I've been hoping to really do for the past two years. I cannot thank my family and my fellow classmates enough for their support, camaraderie, and great friendship these past two years. I couldn't have done it without my classmates, and especially not without my family's willing ears and supportive words and hearts. Here's to them, here's to being 26 and done with school, and here's to the next wonderful phase in this amazing journey of life, and all of the adventures, memories, people, and good times that will entail! Hip hip hooray!!
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