Finally…A College Graduate!

Well, I’m finally a college graduate. I know, it’s about time. My oldest nephew William asked me Friday night how long I had been in college and my response was, “Forever.” I made an A in my class but I haven’t found out yet what I made on the final exam. I could email the professor, but I guess it doesn’t really matter now. Thursday night Roger, my mom and I went to an Association of Former Students event called the Next Tradition. It’s where you learn about being a former student at Texas A&M. The 2007-2008 Texas A&M parents of the year, Roger & Teresa Lane, were there with their Bus 12. I became a member and got my former student association vehicle decal. It’s the only sticker I will put on my car. Roger put it on for me the same night.

Graduation the next morning was interesting. I was excited and a little nervous but at the same time a little annoyed. I wore the dress I made in January and heels, wore my gown down stairs to line up and was carrying my cap, lipstick and a breakfast bar and as I walked into the room I was handed a survey to fill out including a pencil, a program and instructions to read for lining up, walking the stage, smiling at the stage photographer and another reminder to stay during the whole ceremony. I was like do I really need more stuff to carry. We stood for one hour in somewhat alphabetical order waiting to go in. There were no chairs or anything. Some people just sat down on the floor. I was like, I’m in my dress and heels, there’s no way I’m getting on the floor. So I stood and chatted with my fellow classmates griping about the whole ordeal we were about to have to sit through for another 2-3 hours. As we were all talking, complaining and laughing about it all, I joked about how ungrateful we all were for all our complaining. I had already talked to my parents about staying through the whole ceremony to the end to which we decided since I was probably going to be close to the end, we might as well stay for the whole thing. At 9:15 a.m. we saw the line start moving across the gym we were waiting in and we finally started to make our way onto the floor.

As I approached the entrance to the floor, it was getting louder and louder in the arena. And when I entered the arena, I saw why. The family and friends gathered to watch the ceremony were going wild. It felt like we were the home team entering the arena for a major sporting event. I was shocked, but it did feel us up with excitement. That helped make the situation a lot better. Once we were seated and all the introductions were done, the speaker began and I honestly tuned him out. He was some political science professor and I really didn’t care what he had to say. It was all about political regimes and presidents and the war. I was dreading his speech once I found out who our speaker was going to be a few weeks ago. So I read the program and that’s when I realized I wasn’t near the end but almost exactly in the middle. It was finally my row’s time to stand and cross the stage. It was exciting, but nerve racking as we got closer and started to ascend the stairs. I pronounced my name and it was recited almost immediately. I stepped toward President Murano and said thank you to her congratulations, shook her hand with my right hand, accepted my diploma with my left hand, smiled at the stage photographer and walked on. It was over. There were four history professors near the end of the stage shaking hands and congratulating, but it went by so fast. It was like, all that preparation and waiting for what seemed like four maybe five seconds. As I approached my seat I saw everyone else opening the tubes to read their diplomas or check that it was the real thing. So I did the same even though I knew it was going to be there and not some piece of paper that said sorry you didn’t graduate. I sat there for about ten minutes as people around me were getting up and walking out. It didn’t matter to me that they were leaving. I wasn’t offended or anything. When everyone in line around me was discussing whether they were going to leave or not, I mentioned that my family had already decided to stay. There was the whole other side of the arena to go, maybe about 500 more students. So I looked back to see what my family was doing and my mom and sister were looking right at me. They started motioning for me to leave. I was like, for real? I mouthed, “Did you ask Dad? Did you check with everyone else?” But they couldn’t understand me. When they waved good bye at me, I realized they really wanted to leave. So I mustered up some courage to stand up and walk down the row and out. I felt weird at first, but after I opened the door from the stairwell into the concourse, there were gowns everywhere so I didn’t feel bad anymore. We took some pictures with my family and headed over to the Memorial Student Center to drop off my diploma for framing. We were there about three and a half hours total with waiting before hand and my family waiting to get good seats, but it would have probably been four to five if we had stayed for the whole thing. Then we headed home to change clothes and get ready for the party the next day.

The party was a lot of fun. Stressful and exhausting from all the work, but lots of fun and everyone really had a great time. Seeing family and friends who I haven’t seen in a long time was great. The food was good. The music was great. The cake was delicious. We all had a lot of fun. Everyone there was instrumental in me obtaining my degree over all these years. There are lots of pictures on our Flickr site from the whole weekend. After cleaning up a little more Sunday morning, we headed home to Austin to unload and unpack so we could get ready to pack again to leave Tuesday morning for O´ahu. We are excited about this trip. Roger and I were talking last night during dinner and he told me again how proud he was of me. I told him thanks but that it didn’t feel like that big a deal to me. I think I feel this way because it’s taken me so long to graduate because of my own stubbornness and stupidity. I am glad to have my degree and look forward to what doors it opens up for me. As I was telling my sister-in-law Cathy, I hope to find a job that will allow me to be creative and not stagnate my intellect. I’m excited to see what I can find in the Austin area. I will let you know what the search turns up. Okay, I need to cut Roger’s hair so we can finish packing and try to get to bed early tonight. We have a long day of flying tomorrow. I want to thank everyone for praying for me over these years and especially the last year of school while being separated from Roger. I really appreciate all the support and prayer. Now it’s Roger’s turn to finish school. :)

No Ring Yet

After an awesome weekend in Bryan-College Station with my parents for Parent’s Weekend at Texas A&M and Houston with our friends, the McPherson family for their children’s dedication, I was excited about picking up my ring on Monday. Although my ring was ready, the appraisal was not so we couldn’t pick it up. I was a little disappointed because you know I wanted my ring back but especially since I dropped Roger off at the airport this morning he won’t get to pick it up with me or see it until he gets home next week. He’s off to Los Angeles to visit friends and family. He’s got a whirlwind trip planned. And although I’d love to see everyone, L.A. is too much for me plus I can’t because of school anyway. I’m always exhausted when I get back from L.A. Hopefully I get to pick up my ring Wednesday.

We really did have a blast all weekend. Parent’s Weekend was great. This is my last one. We wished we could have stayed with the McPherson family longer, but Roger had to pack and we had a lot of chores to do and errands to run before he left me again. Sigh… It was great meeting the extended McPherson & Tsui family and hanging out with Kezia again. I miss the Asian Sensation. We’ll post pictures soon.

You know I’ve got a list of things to do while Roger’s gone. I have a lot of reading to do. Surprise, surprise. And house work. I’d like to paint over some samples with primer now that I’ve changed my mind on paint color again. But if I don’t get to it, that can wait. And I have some extra exercise I’d like to do this week in preparation for the triathlon next weekend. I timed my 200m swim again today and I’ve gotten faster. My last time was 5:23 and today it was 4:41. I didn’t even swim fast just normal. I was stoked. I also swam a full mile today. I was tired and starving afterward. Actually I was hungry all day. Another surprise, surprise. I think I’ll turn in 5:00 even for the race so I don’t get in any fast swimmers way. This weekend I will be riding my bike to make sure it’s ready and doing a little race walking since I don’t run anymore. Got to take care of my old joints. I also plan to just chill out as much as I can. I need it. I'm so tired from this weekend.

Project Gutenburg

I came across this article, "Peruse the world's best public library" and thought I'd share it. It's about Project Gutenburg which you can download 22,000 classic books for free. And they are adding more every day. I recommend reading the article first so you can get an idea of how and why the project began before you jump over to the website. I think it's a really awesome thing they are doing to save great literature, but I also think it's a great way to read books without having to buy them or if you have transportation issues getting to a library to check them out. Also imagine riding the subway and reading a classic on your palm or smartphone or whatever device you have. You wouldn't have to lug a huge book on the subway, save space and stop getting dirty looks from other passengers because you're taking up so much space because you have to turn the pages while you read. Yes, the DC rush hour riders can be that nit-picky. You should see how they act when you're trying to read the Express which is regular newspaper size! I hope many of you partake in this great service.

I had a relaxing but productive weekend. I got a few things done on the house that Roger & I didn't have time to do while he was home. I was able to get all the Christmas decorations down and packed into tubs, hung some decorative metal gates on the front porch, got rid of another box in the garage by putting all our photo albums in a basket under one of the end tables, and started working on the attic flooring by nailing boards across the inside of the exterior walls for the plywood to sit on since the joists are flush with the wall and the plywood doesn't have anything to rest on. It felt good to get those done. Now I start the rest of the list on Wednesday. Wednesday I plan to cut the plywood pieces I need and place them in the attic. I know I will have to cut them in half to get them up there through the attic stairway hole. If I have time, I will also nail them in and move stuff from another area to that area and start working on the flooring in the next area. I borrowed my dad's pneumatic nail gun and man, what a life saver! No pre-drilling or manual hammering. It took me a whole five minutes to get those exterior wall boards put up. Pneumatic tools are a life saver. Thanks dad!

Today is going to be filled with work related tasks and getting ready for school tomorrow. Texas universities officially started today, but my class is on Tuesday/Thursday, so tomorrow will be all about school. I'm also going to start swimming two days a week before class since I'll be there anyway and the Natatorium at A&M is unbelievable. I have to pay the Student Recreation Center fee anyway, so I might as well use it. By the way, my dad helped build the Student Rec Center that holds the Natatorium many, many years ago. I'm hoping to figure out a time when the lap lanes aren't busy so I don't have to circle with anyone. Indoor pools are rare here so they get packed at certain times. Before I moved to Virginia, I used to swim at the downtown Austin YMCA's indoor pool and after work the lap lanes were crazy busy. I usually had to circle with three other people. That's not fun, especially when only one person may be a trained swimmer and the rest of us aren't. Fast swimmers throw my whole workout off. They push me harder, but that tires me out faster. So we'll see how crazy the university pool is and I'll let you know how it goes.

So as you can see, I didn't do a whole lot this weekend, but I am really happy with what I achieved especially all the relaxing. I went to the 5:00 p.m. service at Austin Stone last night since I worked in the morning on the attic. It was a really good message. We're still going through 1 Corinthians and yesterday Pastor Matt covered 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 and his two points were 1) we must remember church leadership does have authority in our lives and we must honor the leaders of the church, but our loyalty is to Jesus Christ and we must never submit to the point that it defames or dishonors Jesus and 2) our hearts need to be in love with the message not the messenger because God moves and works through men. The church in Corinth was doing both of these. His over all point was if there is ever a situation or time where there is a division or argument or quarrel in the church, he hoped we would be the one to stand up for unity. The church was all a buzz because all the new classes, trainings, forums, etc are starting up for this semester. They have a lot of different classes to offer. I read through all of them and there are many I'd like to take, but I've decided to stick with the one day forums this semester. The thought of a 5-10 week study is more than I want to handle right now. But there are some good ones. The message was good and funny, so if you get a chance you should listen to it by clicking on the link above. And of course, the worship was moving, like always.

Back To School

Okay, school started a couple weeks ago. I'm behind posting about starting school. Yes, I've finally gone back to college to finish my bachelors degree. Since I was blessed with being able to work part time (and from home) and while Roger's still in DC, I'm going to take this opportunity to get as much out of the way as possible.

I am taking two classes this semester. History 481 and Anthropology 202. History 481 is my last history class for my major and the toughest. Both of my classes are on Tuesday-Thursday. So I travel to Texas A&M two days a week. The commute is not bad. I'm sure eventually it will get old, but thank the Lord I only have this semester and next spring to graduate. And everyone else is driving in the opposite direction so there's really no traffic to deal with except getting out of Austin. My first day of class has been the worst. As I drove away from Austin towards Bastrop, the traffic began to back up. I heard on the radio a dump truck turned over and split it's load over the entire road. So I slowly inched forward for an hour. But it was slow enough that I could read some of my anthropology homework. Thank goodness it was not a sign of things to come. So far, my commute has been easy and uneventful. And I give myself four hours to travel two just in case. I use the extra time to read before class. I've got it down to a science now.

The hardest part of the commute has been on the days I'm really tired. But of course, I have found a few coffee shops and one kolache bakery along my two hour drive. There's the usual McDonald's and other fast food places, but I really can't stand those so I don't stop there. One of the coffee shops is local, Coffee Dog, which I prefer over the mega chain Starbucks in Bastrop. But both are convenient and have drive-thru's. And of course the kolache bakery is my favorite but I try not to stop there unless it's an emergency. I'm usually tired from all this reading I've been doing. I basically spend all my time reading. The first week of class I had to read 478 pages of extremely interesting material. Of course you know I'm being sarcastic. I learned a lot but it was difficult reading. I had to have a dictionary through out most of it. I don't know why these people have to use pompous words instead of more understandable words. Some of them I have never heard of. Some weren't even in the latest edition of Webster's dictionary and I had to look them up online. It's kind of ridiculous to need a dictionary to read something. And it was pretty boring at times due to the overwhelming data. The first Saturday night I had to make myself a few cups of coffee to stay awake. It was tough. And now I get to add onto those reading assignments, work toward a 20 page research paper. My research proposal is due next Friday. And my first test is next Thursday. So my weekends (Friday afternoon through Monday) are spent reading, studying, researching and writing. I work three mornings a week. The other time during the week I'm either in class, stopping to visit my parents or reading. Even in between classes I read. I'm so glad this is all almost over.

One thing about going back to school after such a long break is how different college is now. It's the same for the most part, but it's better in one sense and worse in another. So it's better because of technology. Professors are actually using it now. We don't turn in papers physically now. We turn them in electronically using a website called Turnitin.com. We also don't get our grades in class after a test now. We go to a website, log in and get our grades there. I can do almost all of my research online now. There are so many journals, articles, documents, etc which have been digitized now. Which is good for me since I don't live in the same town as the university. And some professors are actually recording their lectures and posting them on websites so you can catch anything you miss. Or skip class completely and just listen online. Of course, human error still exists so that last option is not a smart one. I wish you could listen to my anthropology professor's lectures but only students can access it. He can be very funny, but over all presentation of the subject matter is boring. It could help anyone with sleeping problems. I'm very happy about this part of going back to college. Technology has made it so much better.

The part that's not so much better is how much more "mature" I am compared to my classmates after this long break. It's not that I look like grandma to these kids, even though I'm ten years older than most. I blend in pretty well. Someone told me last week they thought I was 27. Yes, I did hug them. But the immaturity of my classmates and the majority of the undergraduates is hard to deal with sometimes. From fashion to study habits to conversation topics to personalities to commitment to priorities is strikingly different. Most of the time, it's actually amusing. I have to laugh, in my head of course, sometimes. I asked two kids sitting next to me in my 300 student anthropology class if they were freshmen because their conversation was too much. And they freak out so easily. It really is amusing. I feel like every other class I'm calming their fears about something. And the fashionistas are unbelievable. Okay, so Texas A&M's main campus consists of about 2400 acres plus west campus right across the railroad tracks which makes the College Station campus a total of 5200 acres plus 340 acres for the Research Park. The average student walks the 2400 acre main campus. Some have classes or park in both the main and west campuses. And it's hot in Texas regardless of the mild summer we've had this year. And you should see the heels, heavy make-up and the outfits. I've seen Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses, low plunging necklines, skimpy, spaghetti strap summer dresses. These girls are trying so hard. One might think they are only there for a hook-up or future husband. It's actually quite amusing. One thing that really bugs me is the lack of commitment and professionalism especially in my history class. This is our major's seminar class. Everyone has to take it. You'd think if it's your major, you'd actually care. But no, most don't. And it was beginning to seem like no one was doing the reading for class discussion, which is a major part of our grade and people were waiting for me to answer questions. So I decided last week, I wasn't going to speak up until after someone else did. Although the professor has to wait for a response, I don't feel like a big mouth or goody two shoes. Maybe I've been in the professional world too long.

This semester ends the first week of December. I'll have already registered for classes for Spring 2008 before then and paid the graduation fee which is required before you graduate. Next semester I have to take two 300-400 level anthropology classes for my minor. I've already looked at the classes available and wow, it's going to be tough to pick two. I've got it narrowed down to three possibilities based on the schedule, work load, whether a research paper is required and topic. In that order. Of course, the 2008 schedule won't be posted for another month so this might change. Because of technology, you can see most of the syllabi online and choose your classes by what ever criteria you like. As long as I pass these last four classes, I will be able to graduate next May. Yeah! I can't wait. At first I was set that I wasn't going to walk the stage but I was convinced I should. Man, I really can't wait for that day. Then it's Roger's turn to finish his degree.

Although I'm making it sound horrible, I really am enjoying what I'm learning in both of my classes. I would not ever have learned the material that's being covered and I know I will benefit from knowing it. I might actually use it toward my career. I'll try to post about the actual topics of my class later. Hope you're having a great weekend. I'm off to finish my anthropology reading. :)