I GRADUATED!!!!

I’M AN ALUMNUS!!!!

I’M A GRADUATE!!!!

I HAVE A B.S. IN ENGLISH!!!!  (that’s a Bachelor of Science in case you were confused ;P)

Ok so this is a little late because I graduated on Saturday (the 18th of December), but I was busy Saturday with graduating and all and then I drove back to Colorado with the parentals so it was late when I got home and I went straight to bed.  Then on Sunday I slept and then went Christmas shopping with mi madre and just the thought of getting on the computer even for fun put my stomach in knots, I needed a bit of a break.  Then I slept most of the day Monday so here it is Tuesday and I’m just now getting around to announcing it…oh well that’s the way it goes sometimes.

The graduation ceremony was fun, it was the fall ceremony so it’s smaller and goes faster than the spring ceremony.  I sat in the front row pretty much smack dab in the middle; right in front of the podium where the president of the university, the registrar, the student body president and the president of the alumni association spoke from.  I only cried twice; once during a song that the choir sang and then when the alumni president spoke and called us alumni.  They gave us all namecards so we could pronounce our name to the dean and then they would read it out; the namecards also had the honors on it like Summa Cum Laude or whatnot.  I was just happy because this way my name wasn’t butchered.  They did mis-pronounce my middle name but I didn’t care so much because they got my first and last name right so yaaaaaa!!!!

I still have a few little things to finish but overall I’m done…and it feels weird.  It’s going to take a little while for it to sink in.  I keep finding myself doing things that I did in the past when I came to visit my parents.  Like gazing at the mountains and trying to soak it in as much as I can to sustain me only to remember that I don’t have to do that now.  Just little things like that.

And now Christmas is like right here and I haven’t done any shopping so I’m having to do that this week and after that it’s job hunting time…hooray…I have a few prospects lined up so we’ll just have to see if anything pans out.  I figure I’ll be lucky if I get a job before next Christmas.  Kidding, sort of!!

So that’s where things stand.  I should have week-in-a-flash back next week, though I doubt I’ll have a whole lot for it and as soon as I finish up with the few things for school that I have left and get into the mindset of “hey I can do this for fun!” this being reading and writing, then I’ll have other things besides week-in-a-flash and I’ll be able to catch up on all the blogs I read.  And do you know what else I can do now that I’m a graduate and an alumnus?  I can start reading for fun without having to analyze the book so I can write a paper on it later and I can watch TV like a real person now and I can write my stories again and I don’t have to pull all-nighters and I can eat real food…so exciting!!

week in a flash (week 26)

1. Guess what?  I get to leave for Colorado tomorrow for Thanksgiving break!!!  Yaaaa!!!  Four whole days and one half-day in the great state of CO!!!!!  I get to see my parentals, my Uncle and his fam, my cat and the new Harry Potter movie!!  So excited!!!!!!!  Yaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. This is from my PR book in the chapter about  writing ~ “Writing is easy,” said U.S. journalist and playwright Gene Fowler. “All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”  (and a little later)  Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway declared, “Writing is easy.  Just open a vein and bleed on paper.”  ~ I laughed at both of those quotations  :D

3. I thought my mom would enjoy this one – this is from my Twitter feed there was this little movement the other day where people would tweet something that they would have told their 16-yr-old self and this one came from someone who posts as Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter ~ Lord_Voldemort7 #tweetyour16yearoldself Choose Neville Longbottom! Choose Neville Longbottom!

4. I’ve been watching waaaaaay too many Westerns, the other night I dreamt that I was part of a cattle drive (the cattle were owned by my dad) and that I trained my own horse (she was beautiful though, I liked that part of it).  Wow.

5. I looked out my peephole the other morning and it took me a few minutes to realize that what I was seeing wasn’t the sun shining brightly but was in fact bright, white snow on the ground…damn snow (and winter) has arrived in SoDak.  That wasn’t so bad though because it was a light snowfall and was mostly gone by nightfall.  I’m hoping that any blizzard-type weather waits until I’m not living in the state anymore…

6. You know I might have been able to handle living away from the mountains of CO and farther away from family if it weren’t for the damn wind in this state, it’s unbelievable!

7. Days to graduation = 17

w/ weekends and holidays = 25

w/o holidays = 21, by the next week-in-a-flash this one won’t be necessary because the number will be the same as w/ weekends and holidays…hmmm…

8. Bored, excited, stressed, tired…I am so eager to just be done already.

9. I wonder if, sometimes, my strong reactions to things and my passions come off as bitchiness…*sigh* why is it so hard to talk to people about hot button issues without it dissolving into an argument?  I just don’t understand, I mean I understand being passionate about an issue and wanting to convey to people the reason for that passion but that doesn’t mean you have to dismiss someonelse’s viewpoint, does it?  That’s what I don’t understand, I don’t understand being so locked into an opinion that anytime someone raises an opposing view you are unable to proceed in the discussion and remain polite…I try, I really try to remain open-minded while still retaining my views and beliefs and I try to give other people’s views and opinions a fair shake but I also like, adore engaging in discussion and debate. I like it when people disagree with me, I like it when someone has a different point of view but dammit I don’t like it when people are so set in their ways and so locked in the status quo that they dismiss me out of hand.  I just wish that I could find a way to engage in discussion and debate with others that doesn’t end in an argument…that’s all.

10. The song and the video brought me to tears, so beautiful!

11. This was too awesome not to share, read and enjoy! http://thenoreaster.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/sunbeams-12/

12. I have a professor who can’t remember my name in class but when I pass this professor in the hallways they call me by name and say hi..wierd, maybe there’s some sort of memory vortex in the classroom…

13. Yesterday I looked outside and it was…well, I guess it depends on how much you like snow, it was either a winter wonderland or an arctic tundra.  I prefer arctic tundra.  (btw #5 happened either Wednesday or Thursday of last week, completely unrelated).