Graduation! (A month late)

My Masters seems to be a distant memory already! The completion of my final project required major effort. I enjoyed my research and writing time overseas a little too much, and got behind on my actual development of my project. Upon my return last November, I had a new class to plan for, a chronic infection wearing me down, and my procrastination to account for! November and December were a haze of writing, planning, sleeping as much as possible, and a hopefully not too unhealthy balance of antibiotics and coffee. I remember being so anxious about completing my final project and even contemplated accepting an extension. However, thanks to support from many different directions, my final project was approved by the end of the fall semester, December 21, 2014.

It felt odd to transition into not having homework, but the class I taught kept me on my toes as far as researching best practices in ESL, methods in teaching literacy to adults with limited and interrupted formal education, and even additional research on the lives of refugees in refugee camps.

December graduates at our small school are invited to participate in the commencement ceremonies in May. That is what I chose to do. I graduated in December 2005 with my B.A. in Sociology and had spent my final semester abroad. It seemed silly to return to campus a full year after completing my last course on campus. This time around, I was still going to be in the area, so I decided to give it a go. By the time commencement weekend arrived, I would have preferred to cancel!

It was a hot day, with possible rain which never materialized. The humidity made our polyester gowns miserable, but we survived!

My academic advisor

Celebrating with Martha

The first order of business after the pictures was to take a cool shower and a nap! That evening, I was able to meet up with my dear friend Martha, who was my roommate for most of the time I was working on my Masters. She is nearly finished her Masters too, to be a Nurse Practitioner. We suffered through many crazy weeks together, cheering each other on to the end of the semester, only to take a deep breath before diving into another semester. We proof-read each other's papers, talked about ideas for research projects, and tried our best to balance busy work schedules, school and squeeze in some fun to keep us alive! 

Now, nearly a month has passed since graduation, and nearly six months since I turned in my final project. In December, I declared my desire to never write another paper, but those close to me know that likely won't be a permanent state. I don't have any plans to go back to school at this point, but I"m attempting to focus on foreign language study for now! We'll see where this goes!