Reading, 'Riting, and Ramblings

With persistence, mad time management skills, and lots of salty snacks, I've finally done it: I finished the last of my coursework for my master's program!

After my last presentation yesterday, I came home, ate dinner with Sweetie, took a nap, and then settled in to wrap up one research proposal and slap together an essay. This morning I returned to school one last time to print, staple, and turn the papers in to my instructor's box. If this were a civilized class, I could have emailed it to him yesterday or used the extensive infrastructure the university has for such things, but he whines about his print quota and prefers to pass the buck to his students.

In any case, I'm done. Finito. Fertig. Of course, I'll be returning to the same building twice more next week for work, but I have no more arbitrary requirements to fill. How did I mark the momentous occasion? I came home, retrieved Grandma's Christmas card from the mailbox, and put some beans and salsa on a tortilla for a 50¢ celebratory lunch.

But life doesn't end with graduation. No one will simply send me a check every two weeks because I have a shiny diploma on the wall (or, more precisely, at the bottom of a dusty box in the attic). Dare I say that my education was meant to prepare me for life as a productive American citizen. Now I have old papers to recycle, loans to repay, and a career to build from the ground up.