Magna Cum Laude

I was doing a bit of organizing, cleaning generally moving some dusty things around this morning and uncovered something. It is a little book, The Sixty Sixth Baccalaureate & Commencement for Northwest College, May 2002.

Listed their under Baccalaureate Degrees was my sisters name:

Christie Amans……..Magna Cum Laude…..Bothell, WA

I went and googled to get the definition:

According to Wikipedia.org (even though its Wikipedia its true I learned it in Latin class), these terms are called ''Latin honors'' and are used to "indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned."
Here is a list of Latin honors, in order of increasing level of honor:

• "cum laude" (Latin for "with honor")
• "magna cum laude" (Latin for "with great honor")
• "summa cum laude" (Latin for "with highest honor")

By GPA: Graduation with honors 'cum laude' requirements can vary but in general: Cum laude grade point average estimates: gpa for cum laude - 3.5 to 3.74; gpa for magna cum laude - 3.75 to 3.99; gpa for summa cum laude - 4.0+.

I went to my sisters graduation ceremony and do remember noticing this, but I am just so proud of her that I wanted to share.

Christie is a wonderful sister, I have to say she really has made my life so special for many reasons. She is 6 years older and really included me in her life. She has always been a giver of her life and treasure. She paid all of my travel expenses to go see our Mother in Yuma last month. Just one example of her generosity towards me.

She went to college and became a Dental Hygienist then moved from Oregon to San Jose, CA to go to Bible College for a year. There she met her future husband and made life long friends. She lived in California, where I visited many times, and Texas, what a fun place to visit too!!

The last 12 years her family has lived in Seattle, we have spent most Thanksgivings with them there. After 4 years of moving to Washington she had a big decision regarding her career. She decided to go back to college and get her Baccalaureate Degree, in her 50’s. She was going to college, writing term papers and had an outstanding time doing it.

She has a new career now with Home Instead Senior Care, where she is Human Resource Manager. And I must say she is really a perfect fit.

Christie I am reminded of how very proud of you I am and how lucky I am to be your sister!!

One of my most memorable moments with Christie was in Maui. My daughter was getting married there and we traveled and stayed together with Christie and her husband Larry. We were at the beach going snorkeling, but not Joe, he says no way! Sharks you know!! Well after trying to get flippers and mask on while standing in the surf…..

Christie and I are finally out in the water, sand out of our masks…..Larry is still not so sure. We are saying, "come on in, its great"……. then we see Joe behind Larry waving his arms and everyone else on the beach is too!! So we thought, lets go in closer and see what they want. Well what they wanted to say was there was a shark between us and the beach and now we were swimming right to it!! All I can say is Ignorance is bliss!!

When we noticed we were the only ones in the water we thought just maybe something was up for sure!! LOl……we never saw the shark!

It was fun and we went down the beach a ways to the rocks where more people were and continued our snorkeling…. it was a very fun February memory.

We celebrated Valentines Day very quietly, had a great steak dinner and Joe gave me a very pretty bouquet. Watched some Olympics, I just love the Olympics and always wish they would show them earlier in the evening. We are going to bed after midnight for goodness sakes…..lol!!

Thanks for listening to my sharing of my sister, I would love to hear your special memories too!!

Prim blessings,

Carrie