The graduation was held at Radio City Music hall. Beautiful venue. We were lucky enough to amazing seats because Nick's dad was actually the first person in line outside the doors. I felt like it was a stampede as we were walking to get seats. I didn't realize how aggressive parents could be!
As everyone knows graduation ceremony's can be long and exhausting. I felt NYU did a relativley good job with keeping the ceremony on time. A couple of points:
1) There was a NYU professor in attendance as a guest speaker. I absolutely loved his speech more than anyone else. He spoke with such sincerity and the message he delivered was one that really registered with me. He spoke to the students about how they wanted to people to percieve them. Do you want people to say, "he drove a fast car," or "he has a expensive house." Or do you want it to be "he was a great leader," or "he always gave back." I think that's really important to remember. For a lot of students the higher education means bigger paychecks... but money isn't everything. Second, he made a point to say that the balance between work and life is a difficult one. It is not easy. Acknowledge the people that are your support system and lean on them to keep you grounded.
2) The guest speaker for the program was Maria Bartiromo from CNBC's "Closing Bell." She is a former graduate for NYU and definitely has the background in business to provide knowledge. However, I did not like her speech. Nick agreed as well. It read to much as a biography of her career than a motivational speech to the students. As a guest speaker, in my opinion, your speech should motivate and prepare the students for what is about to come. Reiterate that the two years of hard work will be worth it - it might not be easy and sacrifices will be made but in the end this is the best experience you could have asked for. It definitely was not that. I didn't like it at all.
3) After an hour of speakers and two hours of 800+ students names being ready we were ready to stand up and stretch. That didn't quite happen. The dean gave a rather long winded ending speech that could have been condensed to a much shorter version. By that time a lot of the seats were empty and everyone was becoming restless. Note to next year - the conclusion should be kept short and sweet.
Overall a wonderful graduation ceremony and I could not be more proud of my amazing husband!
He did it!
For dinner we had reservations at Eleven Madison Park. This is one of the nicest and hardest restaurants to reserve a table at. It's one of the top 10 (out of 100) restaurants in the U.S. We literally had to call exactly 28 days in advance at 9am to get a table. Nick and I have been wanting to try this restaurant since we moved here. And tonight was the night!
It was magical! It did not disappoint in the least. The restaurant was beautiful, the staff were considerate, and the food tasted like heaven. We all had the 4 course menu. And this wasn't your traditional tasting menu. You picked ingrediants and then the chef would create the meal based on that one ingrediant. So for example, I picked asparagus, cobia (white fish), pork, and malt. You had no idea what would be delivered to you but it was all based on that one ingredient. The suprise and presentation of the food was almost as good as the taste.
All of the flavors exploded it your mouth. Two things that you thought would never go together ended up tasting amazing. We all shared and tasted everyone's dishes and it was just sublime. Before we even had our main courses we sampled about 4 special dishes from the chef. Add some cocktails and wine to the meal and you have one mind blowing dinner celebration. You were never rushed... our dinner lasted 4 hours! It really was one of our best dinners ever!
By the time we left and returned home it was 11pm. Nick opened his graduation presents... cuff links, really nice pen, and an IPad to name a few. It was an amazing day and Nick deserved every minute of it.
Next up? LONDON! I will be MIA for a while because I thoroughly plan to enjoy everything that London has to offer!
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