Mission Accomplished.

Do you all remember George W.'s speech back in 2003 when he flew in (on?) to the USS Abraham Lincoln in his jazzy flight suit and declared in front of God and hopeful, happy Americans everywhere that the mission was accomplished? [By mission he was referring to the end of major combat operations in Iraq for those of you who were busy watching Sponge Bob Squarepants with your roommate after a hard day at the office as a professional working girl. Not that I would know anything about that.] And then do you all remember how we hopeful, happy Americans woke up the next day and the day after that and the day after that and to our not-privvy-to-classified-information-eyes it didn't really seem that all that much had actually changed? Well, that's kind of how I feel about finishing up grad school. As of last Friday at 2:30 in the afternoon, my purpose and reason for moving my home, job, and life to Athens a mere 3.5 years ago was accomplished. Don't get me wrong...I'm ELATED to be done for once and for all. In fact, I don't really think it has actually dawned on me yet that I'm done. Perhaps in January when a new semester begins and I don't have that constant nagging guilt of "I really should be doing school work instead of watching a Law & Order: SVU marathon on a Sunday afternoon." hanging over my head. I mean, seriously...Law & Order: SVU??? Never in my life did I watch that show until I resorted to scraping the bottom of the procrastination tactics barrel during my last semester.

On Friday night, I happened to run into my advisor and her husband at dinner. We were talking and he asked me what I was going to do now. My response: Well, I'm going to work next Monday. To the outside observer, it may appear that nothing really will change all that much. Unless of course you consider the absence of my whining about having school work to do. And admittedly during these first few post-graduate school graduation days as the realization of being done has begun to set it, I have been a little bit frustrated because I met this goal/reached this milestone/accomplished my mission only to be greeted with the same old apartment and the same old job and the same old salary when I get back into town after Christmas. Clarification: I am absolutely grateful for the security that accompanies those "same old things".

Tonight however, I began to think a little beyond the surface. While my routine that has been essentially the same for the last 3.5 years will continue to be that way for at least the foreseeable future, so much has changed in my life. In fact, I have experienced more "life-changing" events in the years that I was in grad school than all of my other years combined. Through these events, I have come to believe that maybe it's not even the actual event but my response to the event that determines how I grow (or wilt) as a person. As I reach the completion of another level of higher education, never in my life have I been more aware of my need for sheer and utter dependence upon a higher power. [And my higher power has a pretty big event coming up on the 25th of this month in case you're wondering if I'm referring to a specific or just any higher power here.] I am at the point in my life when I have never been more formally educated, yet the knowledge that there are certain things in life that are absolutely beyond my control is what is most forefront in my mind. The most important lessons that I have learned while in grad school did not take place in a classroom. Ironically though, were it not for the classroom lectures and material on adult learning that is a component of the program's curriculum, I don't know if my response to and reflection on the events in my life would have been the same. The timing of all of these things in my life lining up quite nicely [now that I can look back on them all and see it] is a great reminder that I am not responsible for the day-to-day operations of Planet Earth despite my best efforts in trying to shoulder that responsibility.

Does everyone here see the parallel that I'm making with my George W. reference and my graduation? If I need to I'm sure that I can have Dubya come in as a guest blogger to make the point crystal clear. Obviously I'm tired because I typically try not to reference politicians or their politics here on the ol' blog. Here's my point. [I think. There's a chance that I'll reread this tomorrow and none it will really be all that coherent.] We may reach what we think is the end of something only to realize that it's actually the beginning. I'm so pumped about my beginning that I'm giving my three readers out there a virtual fist bump.

If it weren't way past my bedtime, I would pretty this post up with some pictures of the glorious graduation day of which I write. Instead I'm including this hyperlink with photo documentation that it really did happen. I'm sure I'll write again when the actual diploma arrives. Maybe that's when I'll really believe that I'm done.