June has been a hectic month, and two more weeks and I can really relax this summer. After my Baltimore vacation at the end of this month, things will really settle down and I can focus on........so many damn things.
But the main part of the month has passed, and with the past several months have come some things that I know without a doubt. I'd like to share them with you, here.
1. I'M A FREAKING GRADUATE, BABY. Took me over two years but I've got that Bachelor's degree under my belt for sure now. On Monday June 10th, I graduated Cum Laude from the Software Programming & Application Development program at Peirce College here in Philly. I'm ecstatically proud of myself. I'm the only one of my parents' kids to have a Bachelor's degree. Me and my dad are the only ones in our family with Bachelor's degrees. And I know why - because it's no easy feat, folks. College isn't easy. College wasn't easy for me as an adult and I can't in my wildest dreams imagine that it would have been easier for me as an 18 year old. For one thing, I thought I knew what I wanted to do at 18 - till I found out what it paid. Till I found out how much schooling (and debt) I'd need to get to where I wanted to be with that kind of degree. But at 18 you don't really know what you want to do with your life. Or, if you do, you have no idea what kind of economic situation you'll be in when you get out of school. Or, if you do know all that, then God bless ya, you're lucky. Because at 18 I never would have thought that I'd get a BS in an IT field. N E V E R. But guess what - turns out I'm fantastic at what I do and it pays pretty well. Some people like to say I got lucky -- FALSE. I worked my ass off. I've been working my ass off since I was 16 and had two jobs (at one point -- three jobs, I think), saving every penny to buy myself my first car. True, I may have fallen into the pharmacy field. But that's not exactly a field that pays well unless you're a pharmacist. It was my work ethic that took me to excelleRx, up the ranks there, and into the IT department. I bust my ass. And I have drive. Luck has almost nothing at all to do with where I am today. Don't discount all my hard work by calling me "lucky". Some people also like to say that I'm a supermom -- FALSE again. In the past 2 years I have felt like such a bad mom at times that I've sat in the basement listening to my daughter play upstairs while I cried, knowing it would be hours before I could go play with her because there was so much homework in front of me. I've had such surges of mommy guilt over being in school that I had been seconds away from quitting entirely several times. The truth is that all I did was fill my "down" time with "homework" time. You know all that time you spend sitting on the couch in the evenings watching TV or reading a book or going out with friends or doing laundry or hanging out with your spouse or whatever it is you do in your down time? I just did homework. That's all. I'm no supermom; I was a super stressed mom that barely held it together for 2 years.
But that's all over now.
Please don't ask me if I'm going for my Master's degree. PLEASE.
2. I have some of the best friends in the world. My four motherboard friends moved heaven and earth (almost quite literally) to be here for my graduation, and I don't think I could ever express the depths of my gratitude. My graduation party or ceremony wouldn't have been the same without them, that's for sure. :)
3. I am the heaviest I have ever been, and this needs to change, and very soon. I'm working on it, and that's all I'll say.
4. While getting to where I am now has nothing to do with luck, I feel lucky. I have the most beautiful daughter in the world. I have the best husband ever. My family and friends freaking rock. My job keeps me incredibly busy but when I get that paycheck at the end of the month I'm just like "Well ok, for that I can do all that all over again." I'm creative and I have hobbies and outlets to channel my creativity into.
5. I can't can't can't can't can't CAN'T CAN'T CAN'T WAIT for this summer to start. I can't wait to take my daughter to the beach, to read books, to cook, to get some sun, to go to the gym every single day, to take advantage of every single free second I have and fill it with doing something I love. I promise I will never, ever take those kinds of seconds for granted again. If school has taught me anything - it's that.
I guess you could argue that it took 2 1/2 years and $36,000 to teach me to live life to its fullest, to not spend a single second on anything that makes you anything less than happy, to take advantage of your time here and do things you love to do.
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