School's Out for Summer, School's Out Forever

Well, I’ve done it folks. I’ve finished with school… at least for now. I have officially received my Bachelor of Arts with an English major and a Feminist Studies minor. One of the longest, and fullest, chapters of my life has officially closed.

It hasn’t quite hit me yet. I guess it’s because I haven’t really been willing to let that part of me go. I’ve always attended school, and I’ve always had a goal in regards to school. Even during the summer, where I find myself now, I’ve had something to work on. Whether it be finishing summer projects, study abroad homework, or even just getting my booklist for the new semester (which I always started to ready early), school has always been there. Give me a month or two, when all the little ones still at University start posting about their upcoming classes and assignments, and then it’ll finally hit me.

I’ve been lucky to have such a wonderful academic experience, from educational opportunities to professors. I was able to be part of the first graduating class of my Ohio high school to participate in the International Baccalaureate Program which had just started up there; the ‘guinea pig’ class as we called ourselves. There were a lot of kinks to work out, basically how to run the entire program, but I feel as if I’m going to be part of a legacy that will never be forgotten. I also feel a connect with every fellow IB-er I meet, discussing which areas of focus our teachers chose for our classes, how our exams went, what our Extended Essay was on. Yes, I wrote an 18 page paper in high school which I worked on for 2 years. While compared to college and graduate school that might not seem like a lot, to a wide-eyed seventeen year old I was quite proud of my work (and I definitely did not mind listening to music from the Vietnam War era either for the project).

For college I packed up and headed south to one of the 40 colleges that apparently change lives. While I can’t speak for the other 39, my college sure did change my life. Going in to this school I knew it would be a challenge, but it was one I was ready to take on. I’ll admit, college was hard, much harder than I had originally expected. I’ve always considered myself more of a hard worker than a natural ‘genius’ when it comes to academics, and there were times where I was very stretched thin with the amount of work I had. There were no ‘easy-A’ classes, or professors for that matter, at my school. While I may not have had the perfect 4.0, I will say this: I am proud of every grade I have received from that school, because I know that I put all that I could into every class and every assignment, I truly worked my hardest for those grades. While I watched my fellow classmates transfer out, or even drop out, I contemplated leaving myself on a couple of occasions. But one of the things about me is I’m extremely stubborn, and I have too much pride to quit something; no matter what I’m going to see something all the way through. While this was occasionally a hindrance, staying in classes which I probably should have dropped (i.e. Calculus…), this is a quality about myself that ultimately I am very proud of. It was this stubbornness that got me my IB diploma too, since half of my class dropped from Diploma to Certificate after the first year. I’m extremely thankful I stuck it out, and I know I have received an amazing Liberal Arts education.

Anyways, back to my original point. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve kind of become a bit of an academic nerd, but really what else is expected when your parents have 6 degrees, including one PhD, between the two. This is why I’ve refused to admit so far that my academic career is over… once again, for now. Hopefully some day I’ll go back and get my Masters, I’m just not quite sure what I want it in yet. But that’s for another day.

So I’m back in my birth town of good ol’ Dallas where my heart belongs. It’s good to be in a place with so many memories and family. The job hunt has also begun. Which is where I’m at right now. I’m sitting in my favorite little coffee shop (the Pearl Cup drinking their famous Pearl Latte- in case you were wondering) writing cover letters to send out to various Dallas companies. I’ve spent a lot of time here in the past as a college student, reading Mansfield Park and writing about Freud and psychoanalysis. I’ve now grown and joined the rest of the masses now, working on business work instead of schoolwork. Yes, I am still wearing one of my favorite sorority shirts from college that I just couldn’t part with right now. Hopefully just me acknowledging that’s kinda lame is the beginning of me accepting that I’m no longer a college student.

Maybe someday I’ll get it through my head.