Memorial Weekend Visitors!!

David & I were blessed with visitors for Memorial Day weekend, friends of ours from Oregon, Geoff & Tamara who often were there for me when I was living in Portland, OR and in need of friends, a ride, food, someone to vent to, an adventure and great memories.
This past weekend I was able to host them and we kept them busy with trips to local ice cream joints, a tour of Boston, lunch at my parents a short hike to view Boston from Andover, and meeting the newest addition to my parent's house (below)
Colby a 4mo old black lab/boarder collie seems to be a great new brother for Cassie who already loves romping with him and a fun addition to the Shannon clan. He even did well with Geoff and Tamara's new addition to their family, also 4mo old, Kaya.

Kaya is awesome, she accompanied us on all our adventures and was happy and pleasant the whole weekend. It was a joy to get to know her and we look forward to seeing her grow up over the future years.
Thanks for visiting Statons. We had a great time and we hope you enjoyed yourselves and had enough excellent New England ice cream to tide yourself over until the next time we see you. Come back anytime.

Remember when prom was the biggest night of your life

Colleen's Senior Prom was this past weekend and she looked awesome. Very elegant and mature. So I thought I'd share some of the great photos we took of her and her boyfriend Kerrick.

My thoughts

So I wanted the last blog to be about the graduation ceremony, share some photos. But I had some thoughts about the changes in my life that I want to share. I realized sitting at the graduation ceremony that when I start working I will be my own therapist. I will no longer be practicing under someone elses license. I will have my own responsiblities, someone won't always be checking my work, won't always have my back. I am heading into a time where it may look like I have a little less responsibility, no homework due on specific dates, no presentations, no papers or exams, however daily I will be responsible for my patients, I will be responsible for helping return them to their previous functional ability.

I think I am up to that task. I have been studying for 6yrs, all for this moment, this transition period. It's a big transition, it's exciting but very scarry. Will I have a patient that dies on my watch, will I save a life by detecting something that someone else may miss, will I daily meet my patient's needs and my own goals? I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

When I started at Northeastern they (meaning the department heads of the PT school) told us new PT students that there were 100 of us and to look at the person to the left and right of you because on graduation day 2 out of 3 of you will not be there, that only 30 of you will make it through the program. On that day I told my dad "I will be one of those 30, I will graduate from this program" Well I think there were a lot of other kids in that room that thought the same thing because 86 of us graduated but it doesn't matter, it was still just as hard, it was still just as many long nights and days in the library study rooms, in the labs practicing, at home trying to get homework done, balance some social activity and still be sane. Imade it though, I made it through 6 straight years of school and am proud to say I am ready to have the responsibility, I am ready to meet the needs of my patients and peers, I am ready for the PT world to meet Alison Shannon-Lier.

A graduate, a physical therapist, an adult

Hi everyone

it's been a couple weeks since I've graduated, I'm now an adult with a doctorate in physical therapy however I still need to take my exam before I can officially call myself a physical therapist. The celebration at school was two days long, the first being the pinning and hooding ceremony which family (my parents, sister brother, David and my father-in-law came), friends, and teachers of the PT class attended. It was an intimate ceremony where teachers told funny stories about our class of 86 PT students, two of our classmates shared their memories and feelings of the last 6 years, Tammy sang a beautiful song to us and we all cried and then we were hooded and ate, drank and were merry. The actual graduation ceremony wasn't all that. It took so long for us to walk in and then listen to the PhD candidates get their hoods (a total of 3hrs so far) that when I recieved my diploma I decided I was tired and it was time to leave. So my parents, David and I went and grabbed some pizza instead of watching the rest of Northeastern Graduate students get their degrees. It was a great decision. Below are some pictures from the pinning ceremony

The first time I saw David after being hooded / David and I on the 4th floor of Behraki

Kathryn, Laura and myself at Behrakis / awww, most of the gang all together

Myself with my family