Maroon and Gold...

Today is such a special day for us; one that we have been looking forward to for two long years... today Nick graduates with his MBA from The WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University!

Nick has always wanted to get his MBA, (I remember talking about it with him before he even graduated from West Point!) and two and a half years ago we made the decision that the time was right for our family. The kids were young and the two nights a week in class were "do-able" for us with little activities such as sports and school events. We knew that it would be really difficult at times and that there was no turning back and no giving up once we started... we were in it for the long haul.

I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am. Nick gave up so many things that he wanted or wanted to do because of school and he had the best attitude the entire time. There were countless days that he had to skip family funtions, stay up until midnight or later (on top of working full time and the four hours in class two nights a week), so many weekends given up for group projects and meetings, electives that he was in for four hours four nights a week and then eight hours on Saturday (during the holidays), and he would sit at the table or lock himself in our office when the only thing he wanted to do was play with the kids or sit back and relax. There was a week that he had to be in Tucson for a training session for work, but he also had to be at school in Phoenix on Tuesday and Thursday. He worked all day, drove the two hours to Phx for class then drove back to Tucson after class for training the next day. He made up classes when he traveled, which sometimes had him away every night of the week and he studied while on business trips instead of enjoying time to himself or with his associates.

He walked a fine line with a smile on his face and I could write all day about all of the sacrifices that he made for this dream, but I can't tell you what this has meant for our family and I will never be able to put into words how proud I am of him for this!

Go Devils!
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