.... No really, I am. But not for a couple weeks. In the meantime, I'm going to work a little bit so I can earn money to go play in Disneyland for a few days with some friends.
So this is what its like to be graduated from college, huh? This past weekend, I graduated (for real this time) from BYU-Idaho.
I was able to attend commencement as a graduate in the new BYU-I Center that was dedicated at the end of the Fall 2010 semester. That was pretty cool, considering I got to sit four rows from the front. That was such a great day for me. I thought I was going to be really emotional, but I realized my emotions had kind of died down for me over the past couple weeks. I mean, yeah I got a little teary-eyed, but the real waterfall of tears that I was expecting came at last semester's commencement when I had accomplished my goal of passing both my math classes. I had two of my really good friends graduating this past Fall semester and so I was able to attend their commencement. It was the weirdest thing- the person giving the invocation wasn't even
finished with giving the prayer and I was already crying my eyes out. And as President Clark was telling all the graduates that they had worked very hard to get to this day of accomplishment, I was really having to suppress my sobs. I wasn't necessarily crying out of joy for my friends (although I was very proud of them both), I was crying out of joy for myself because I HAD worked hard to get to that day. I probably could have walked with my friends last semester, but I wanted to make sure I was REALLY done with everything before I graduated.
But yeah, commencement lasted an hour and I'm positive I was crying for a good 20 minutes of it. It was all settling in for me that, yes, I had accomplished my goal of passing every.single.class that I was required to in order to get to student teach. I had so much emotion built up from how hard I'd been working over the past year and so once I realized that I had finally passed my two math classes that I'd been struggling with for so long, I just let all the tears fall.
Another reason I wasn't walking yet is because I hadn't passed the PLT (the Principles of Learning and Teaching Praxis exam) yet and I wouldn't be taking it until about 2 weeks into my student teaching. I'm glad I waited until I'd been student teaching a little while to take the test, though, because those two weeks of me being in the classroom prepared me better than probably the entire "How to Pass the Praxis" book I'd been studying did. I was really surprised with how much I learned during those two weeks of being in the classroom. Heck, one of the parents of a student came in literally the day before I was going to take the Praxis and I am positive that her visit alone taught me so much and gave me the information I needed to nail the test. I am so grateful to this mom that came in because she really probably is the reason why I was able to pass the test with the high score that I received. I'm going to have to send her a thank you card to tell her how much she helped me.
So yes, this past weekend was more of a relieved/happy weekend rather than an emotional weekend. It was so nice because my parents and I were able to go at a leisurely pace and do stuff that I wanted to do. We walked all around campus and got pictures of all the places I spent the most time in or had significant memories for me. We went to lunch at the Olive Garden and then came home. After we finished lunch, I just heaved a contented sigh and said "I'm just so happy that I'm done!"
It's such a great feeling to be done with college and not have to worry about finals or classes or anything like that. I mean, yeah I will probably be taking classes/workshops inn the future to get endorsements and whatnot for my teaching, but as for the college life, I am REALLY done this time.
Now I get to start the process of getting certified and applying for a job. Yay! Let the job-hunting process commence!
