Saturday, June 8, 2013

Graduation!!!

Last month marked the end of a milestone for me. Three years of hard work finally paid off when I received my diploma from Saint Joseph's College for my Master of Science in Education.  I was thrilled when I submitted my last assignment, which was my final project, but it was nothing when I received my diploma in the mail. I originally planned on going to the graduation, but there were reasons that prevented me from going, which was okay.



It has taken me some time to realize that I'm finished my degree.  I now have spare time to kill, and I still get that feeling that I have something I should be doing.  A strange thing has happened, however.  When I was supposed to be working on my coursework, I was reading books for pleasure.  Now I have yet to finish a book.  I would find time to work in my garden, now the weeds are taking over.  I was in shape and used to not only go for walks, but would run and ride bike as well.  Now, I can barely get myself motivated.

For the past 16 years I have either been going to college to obtain my Bachelor's in Education, taking graduate courses to gain an endorsement in English as a Second Language, and endorsement in English for the secondary level, or  working towards my Masters.  Now that I'm finished, my routine is messed up.  I'm thinking that after all this time I need to start from the bottom up and create a whole new routine.

These past few weeks I've been acknowledged by my superintendent, principal, and colleagues, which felt pretty good, and congratulated by my family and friends.  My name appeared in our local paper announcing my achievement, and I even received a free car wash at a local gas station today.  As nice as these little tokens and acknowledgements are, I am proud of myself, and the largest reward will be this fall when my pay will be increased because of my new degree.  However, in the back of my mind, there's a little "so there!" to my ex who had said that I would never finish what I started, that I could never go to school to become a teacher, and all of those many put-downs that I put up with for nearly 10 years of our relationship.

As much as my achievements have been for ME, I have to admit that I enjoy knowing all of these years that whenever my name appeared in the paper because of an academic achievement, such as being on the Dean's List every semester of college, and my new teaching position, that the "so there!" was always loud and clear.  My motivation has always been for me and came from me, but I can't help but think that the "so there!" also played a large part in it, too.

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