Finally! It's Graduation Day!

     For 86 days, April 24, 2015 was the day I had counted down to and anticipated. Finally the day arrived and my excitement was definitely showing with the smile of my bright, pink lips from ear to ear.  I was sitting in the front seat of the Tahoe while my mom pulled onto the base and drove down the straight road with nothing but swamps surrounding it. Parris Island was actually beautiful, full of trees hanging with Spanish moss.   At this point I had been with Hunter for one year and two months, so nervousness was not normal for me to be feeling. But that day, I could feel it in my stomach.
      Finally, we came upon two Marines standing in the middle of the road with machine guns wanting to see my mom's driver's  license, proof that we own the vehicle, and proof that we have insurance on the vehicle. Kinda strange right? We handed the Marine, that looked like he was 16 years old just like me, our papers. He checked them and gave us a pass onto the base. We parked and started walking toward the gate that led onto the parade deck when we hear someone yelling my name. It was Hunter's mom. We waited for her and we walked in together. Once again we were being checked from head to toe. My mom and Hunter's mom walked straight through the metal detector with no problems but when it was my turn to just simply go through, the machine went off. The man looked at me and told me to go back and walk through again just to hear the detector go off again. At this point I was getting frustrated. I didn't even have any metal on. The man asked me to take my purse off and lay it on a table and he then proceeded to check me when I noticed little metal buttons on my denim jacket. I took the jacket off and walked through the detector. This time without setting off the sound.
     I sat in the area of the bleachers assigned for the friends and families of the platoon 3025. We sat down and not long after,  a little band, made of maybe three trumpets and a couple of flutes, marched out being led by a very, tiny guy with a sword. The band marched out to the middle of the floor and played "God Bless America" while the new Marines marched out and got to their spots. I could see Hunter, second from the left, third one back. I watched impatiently while the Marines marched around the parade deck and told about the creation of the Marines during the Revolutionary War. Then finally, for the first time in 13 weeks, the Drill Instructors dismissed the newly graduated Marines.
      The Marines were jumping and running everywhere and the friends and family were rushing onto the platform. I couldn't wait to run up to Hunter and give him the biggest hug, that I had waited to do since January. He was nowhere to be found. His dad said that he saw a couple of guys run back towards the Barracks. I thought to myself, "It couldn't have been Hunter. All he has written about is how he couldn't wait to see me after graduation." I stood there in my brand new "Lilly Pulitzer" dress in a daze. Ten minutes after standing there my phone went off and it was a text from Hunter wanting to know where I was. I replied, "Where am I?? I am standing here looking for you!" He said that he went to his room to get his stuff so that he could find me and get off Parris Island. When I finally found him he was standing on the parade deck beside a little set of bleachers looking right at me.
     I walked up to him and hugged him. he hugged me back and for a while I didn't think he was going to let go. This was it. The moment I had been longing for. Of course 500 pictures had to be taken.  All the  problems that had happened throughout the week and that day disappeared.  It had been extremely stressful, but it was a definitely a day I would never take back! And now let's go to Hilton Head Beach for the weekend! (Oh! By the way! My dad was released from the hospital during the graduation and was on his was way to South Carolina!)