Friends By Choice

I don't do a lot of double-page layouts these days. But Zig Zag Scrap has one for their September monthly challenges. And, since completing the monthly challenges is a new goal for me (I'm trying to push myself to do more pages in general), I went ahead and jumped in. However, it was a bit harder than I anticipated.

I know that I started this layout at least a week ago, but I had to step away from it several times because it just wasn't coming together easily for me. The photo meant a lot to me - a graduation photo taken back in Dec. 1998 with me and four of my classmates. Those four women were part of the reason I even made it through my graduate program. And we had quite a story, despite only being together for about 18 months.

A couple of notes on the challenge: a double-pager, with one page that had no photos. There had to be journaling on one of the pages. Other than that, anything goes. So here is my entry for that challenge...

The journaling reads:

   We were strangers brought together by a school assignment. Three of us were from outside of the U.S. The remaining two were from opposite U.S. coasts. We had all signed up for the same group in one of our advertising classes - the Adventure Sport Group, which would work to target consumers interested in “adventure sports,” sports like rock climbing, bungee jumping, skydiving, etc.

     Although we had differences in ages, experiences (work and personal), and backgrounds, we meshed very well together, becoming fast friends. Our group was known for “fun” presentations that entertained our classmates, as well as our professors and the sponsoring company for the project.

     Even after we finished our project, we all remained close friends, going shopping, having dinner, and studying together. Making it through our graduate program was quite an achievement for all of us, and we definitely had to capture the moment just before graduation ceremonies started since we were split up based on program specialty.

     This is one of my favorite photos of all of us and definitely the one with most meaning.

CREDITS

Papers: Noted (Pink Reptile Designs); Tranquility (Jeanelle Paige); Good Reads – Torn Papers (Aprilisa Designs);

Embellishments:  Noted (Pink Reptile Designs); Tombo (Ninigoesdigi); Here There and Today (Studio 68); Crisp Mornings – Add-On (Sherri Tierney); Summer Lovin frame (ZZS Designers)

Alphabet: Noted (Pink Reptile Designs)

Mask: Paper Tear Holes 2 (Jeanelle Paige)

Fonts: Turtle Club (title); Shelter Me (journaling, Kimberly Geswein)