I'm not going to miss certain things about this place...

Overheard as I am picking up my cap and gown:

In an overly whiny/I want to be the center of attention voice, “How come some are blue and some are black?”

I look at the student and simply say, “masters” as I walk off with my black cap and gown. (No I was not snobby about this at all, but I was the only one there with said black gown so I had to say something)

Holy Moly! I have a cap and gown and a tassel thingy--again. AND I get to wear a nifty hood…no idea what color though. Will find out soon, as in TOMORROW!!! Woot.

*****************
You know what I learned today? When you graduate with a M.A. degree you don't do the whole move tassel from left to right like undergrad. Interesting...and I was given absolutely no explanation for this so that was the extent of my learning. Oh well, I am about to graduate, who said anything about continuing education?

Long Walk

Monday was the day. It was the day that I made my final walk across campus to complete an assignment. Literally, about a 5 minute walk, but it really took me about 3½ years to get there. And you know what? I am proud of myself for this degree. When I began this program back in the spring of 2004, I really was not interested in the degree itself, rather it was the experience I would gain and the classes that I could take that were appealing. However, now, I can’t believe I have actually finished all of the classes and work (and man there has been a lot of that lately) to earn a master’s degree. Yes, I earned it, which for some reason or another is hard for me to grasp sometimes.

As I was taking the final steps of my long journey my heart was racing a bit. A whole new chapter is about to begin and I hardly know what to do with myself. At the same time, this period of life, that I will never forget (especially my time at HoneyRock), will soon be part of my past and no longer my present.

So here’s to looking back on the past 3½ years:

48 master’s level credit hours – check
1 written comprehensive exam – check
1 oral comprehensive exam – check
1 mega internship paper – check
1 M.A. in Education Ministries – priceless (ha ha ha I wish! Hello student loans!)

Thanks so much for not giving up on me even though I have been mostly unavailable for the past months…you know who you are.


Oh and just so you know… (as in not related at all)
The glasses are cute, however the eyeballs are going crazy – and therefore my brain. Perhaps it is because I have a lazy lazy right eye that decided long ago to just let my left eye do all of the dirty work. (shame on you lazy right eye) So really, I am trying to reprogram my eyes/brain, but the headaches are not so fun. Three weeks into this and I can now wear my glasses/contacts a total of 1 hr and 30 min. And that’s progress! As of right now I do not feel safe driving with either of these corrective eye wear thingies, but the time will come.

So how many times were you asked...

Now this past weekend could have a huge bearing on the future life of Neile and Nicole. And I can tell you overall, it was good. We went on a little trip to see some friends and blah blah blah. I will have to fill you in on the details at a later date. More importantly, I had the pleasure of being asked the same question over and over again for 4 days straight! (don't worry I was nice...I think) I do understand that this is mainly because I was in a different place and around people I am not normally around, but still...it is hard enough juggling school and work and home and friends and family and marriage without also having to think about my future! And I do realize that this is something I need to figure out.

You know what question I'm talking about right? "What are you going to do after you graduate?" Gee that is a good question...hadn't thought about that before. (sarcastic - who me?!?)

Actually that is the one question at the forefront of my thinking most days. And no I don't have an answer, nor will I have an answer for you any time soon! It is times like these that I wish someone would just tell me what to do (and...it would end up being perfect)

It's Official

This just in....I have passed my comprehensive exams! Huge sigh of relief. I just found out yesterday and it is still just sinking in. Praise the Lord that I do not have to take that over again (and no I was not confident that it would turn out this way).

Now on to the next few projects...case study, write paper, write paper, and write even more papers.

May graduation cannot come soon enough.

First day of my last class!!!

Introductions: Hi my name is Nicole. I started this program spring of 2004 just for personal growth – now, 3 years later? Well, I have no idea what I want to do with my degree…perhaps work with young adults. My favorite book? Hmmmm Can’t really say one comes to mind - mostly because that kind of stuff doesn’t stick in my brain. I read a lot, but have only read one book twice in my life. Oh what book is that? Well, Memoirs of a Geisha. (Me totally red-faced because of course everyone else has been saying these life-changing Christian books!)

At least we all laughed at it….although who’s to say that all but me wasn’t laughing out of nervousness. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all left class praying for that poor dear girl and of course all of the people I would be ministering to once I get a degree in ministry. Yes, I will get my M.A. in educational ministries this May even if it kills me! Let’s just pray it doesn’t kill my marriage and friendships in the process….

Can we say OBSESSED?

Ever have something that gets on your mind and no matter how hard you try to forget about it, you simply cannot let it go? Well, I’ve just had that horrible experience. I say horrible because in my case I lost something. Mind you, this is not something soo valuable as say my wedding ring, but it is important enough. Okay, let’s be honest, it is not even close to my wedding ring. Plain and simple it is a book. More importantly though it is a book for my class that I go to twice a week. I have not read this book yet, but I have to very soon. Will I fail if I don’t read it…no. It would probably only affect my grade by the smallest amount. So why is this so upsetting to me? I do NOT lose things.

Yes, I know everyone does sometimes, but that is not the issue at hand. I had thumbed through the book a mere two weeks ago on my kitchen table and now it is gone. I of course didn’t notice until Tuesday of this week – seriously though, the reading isn’t due until next Tuesday so why would I have noticed any earlier? I look everywhere in my apartment. We only live in a one bedroom apartment so there are only so many places it could be. No luck. So yesterday I get Neile to look everywhere…and I mean everywhere. He basically started in one room and worked his way through the apartment (he even checked under the bathroom sink—go figure). Still no luck. I started getting even more desperate. I knew I had never taken the book out of the apartment, but I went ahead and called my parents to have them look in their house. I went out to my car and looked in it. Eventually I had to just give up. So I got online and started checking the local libraries (I already bought the dumb book once and didn’t want to do it again). No luck. I tried Amazon.com and compared it to my college’s bookstore. I decided to give it one more day. So all day today at work I was thinking of possible places in our apartment that it could be. First thing I do when I walk through the door – look through the same places that I have looked through only about 10 times now. Ughhhh. Yes, I hate the book, but more importantly I still can’t get over that I lost something. It is actually making my skin crawl and I can’t even carry on a conversation with my husband at dinner because the stupid book is all I can think about. I keep telling myself I need to move on, just get over it, it is only $16 dollars (seriously why am I obsessing so?) and I can buy a new one tomorrow. Finally, I resign myself to this and decide to write a note to my aunt.

Nicole: Neile, do we have any stamps?
Neile: If we do they’re in that shoebox on the shelves.
Nicole: …….(speechless because right there in the shoebox is my precious little book…..yes my precious)

All I can say is this book better be the best book I’ve EVER read in my life!