This past week has been the most significant one I've had in ahwile in terms of major life events. Within 3 days I took my oral examinations, turned 25, and graduated from my master's program! I feel like by now I should be Old and Smart. I'm pretty certain I'm not quite there yet. Don't worry, I'm not about to go changing my blog to "The Things I've Learned."
My oral examinations were actually not as scary as one might expect them to be if one had a professor with such an intimidating name as "Dr.
Damschroder" on her committee. In fact, I would almost (but not quite) say that I breezed through the questions, even whipping out the "
amyloid precursor proteins" and "
neurofibrillary plaques and tangles" cards at the appropriate moments. The real difficulty came when it was time to turn my final examination form into the graduate school office, located some blocks away on the East Bank. I found the building with amazingly little ado, turned in the form and skipped back toward West Bank to get my car. Approximately 8 minutes later I came down from my cloud long enough to realize that I didn't really have a clue where I was. Behold, in the distance I saw a bus stop, so I stood there for awhile and waited patiently for the bus to come. When this didn't happen within a several minute span, it came to my attention that I didn't really know what bus I should get on, or where it would take me if I did get on it. I decided that it would be best for me to just start walking in the direction from whence I came, which turned out to be a good option. Ironically for someone who had come directly from finishing her master's degree in music, the song running through my head throughout this entire sequence of events was "Where, oh where has my little dog gone?" I'm not quite sure what this says about the appropriateness of my degree.
The following day, which incidentally was my birthday, was
alot less smooth. First of all, I woke up with a zit the size of Kansas City on my cheek, making me feel like I was perhaps turning 15 instead of 25. Not only was I having one of those famed "ugly days," but we had just gotten a new admit on our floor, and he seemed determined to make my job hard. During our first music session in the morning, this gentleman covered his ears and cleared his throat an indeterminate number of times. He also took to mocking me whenever I spoke, which was a new thing for me on this floor! In addition to my new friend, I got locked out of my office right before lunch (and yes, my poor lunch was in the office!), even though I had the key it wouldn't go into the lock. My lunch was saved about an hour later by Orv, the new maintenance man, and his can of lock
de-sticker. I like him already! The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, thankfully.
Yesterday I walked across the stage and proudly received the empty folder which theoretically will house my diploma once it is mailed to me in two to three months! It greatly amused me and probably the security guard who happened to be be near me that I needed to ask directions to the auditorium whilst wearing my cap and gown. He probably thought "
hmm, apparently this girl didn't go to class much... "! It is a tremendous relief to finally be done with school, I'm definitely going to take some time of before I on to get my PhD (that is, if I actually decide to do it).
So there we have it, the "life update!" My next goal is to finally write my book...stay tuned!
