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What a day. At 7PM, I was at my graduation ceremony at CPCC. Although I won’t technically graduate until this summer, since I’m a summer graduate I could attend. I’ve never been to my own graduation ceremony before, so it was finally a tangible taste after all those years of hard work. It was also nice graduating with honors (Mu Alpha Theta, Phi Theta Kappa, 3.7-3.99 GPA), at one point being one of only a couple of students standing to show off their honors (I’m a member of Mu Alpha Theta, a national mathematics honor society, and we are a rare breed apparently). I’ll tell you what though, it’s a pain keeping all of those cords and the stole in place.

The commencement ceremonies were nice, the guest speaker may have been a bit better ( she had occasional fits of verbal diarrhea), and it was a relief to finally see something tangible for all of my hard work. Now that I am past that, I can focus on my final course and be over and done with (oh yea, and getting that CPCC accounting issue resolved).

But the day only got better. After a wonderful after graduation dinner with my daughter – or as she would say, we had a date – we got home and I got her to bed, and I started putting everything up. Then I remembered a conversation from earlier in the day with a lady from UNCC. They had a few questions regarding some of the answers on my application (yes, I was a bit of a hellraiser in highschool, but I wasn’t that bad.. they just needed to know that), then let me know I could go online the next day and check my status. So I checked it.

I GOT ACCEPTED! So now the day ends on an even better note. Starting this fall, I will be somewhere in the area of a Sophomore/Junior at UNCC (depends on how all of the credits transfer over). Another 2-3 more years, plus another 2 if I can do an accelerated master’s program, and I’ll be at the mark I’m aiming for. Wow. Will I ever get a break? Sure, when I die.

Was there a point to this post other than to brag? No, not really. I’m just really… stoked… about the events of today. It’s nice to know that I have written this current chapter in life to be a good one, and I now have direction of where I am going to go for the next chapter. Tomorrow is my day.

After spending the last 3 years of my life battling the fatigue and burnout of maintaining full time employment, full time school loads, a family of your own, and all the added responsibilities of taken care of the house, cars, and finances, one chapter of that is about to end soon. Last Friday I got to thinking “Wow, I’m going to be graduating this summer. Wait a tick, I should have gone by the graduation office last month!” So after a couple of forms, I got my “permission slip” to get my cap, gown, and purple cord (for having a program GPA between a 3.7 and 3.99), I was reading to walk. That evening, it finally hit me again: I’m walking on May 14th, which is just around the corner! Oh my god, I’m almost done!

It’s been a very long, uphill battle, but I think I’ve done good dealing with it. So far I only have 3 B’s, of which all 3 I can contribute somehow to work (they should have been A’s, damnit!). I may not far my best this semester, with everything going on. But I can say I am proud of everything I have accomplished up until now. People can say what they want too, but I could write a book on the difficulties of being a full-time college student while living out the life of a typical middle-class working man. I have heard too many classmates complain about their waitering jobs and such, and I always offer to switch with them. For some reason they always decline.

The best and worst thing I did do though was to get a job that required thinking for most of the day. My second job back, I was a mindless drone, entering in serial numbers and information all day long. Thinking was an occasional benefit, but the job bored me to hell. Then my contract was ended, and I picked up my last job. All of a sudden I’m thinking, planning, troubleshooting, etc. all day long. Sometimes working 60-70 hour weeks. It grinds away at you, especially when you are already shot.

My other main set back came from this same job. Last spring I was taking the same courses I am taking now, when my work did a 180, and I went from potential day trips to travelling cross country. I had to withdraw, which hurt in many ways, and also cost me my chance to graduate last fall, 1 semester ahead of when I drew up my plan back in the summer of 2006. I lost one and paid it back with two. Ugh. I have one course to take this summer, a hard one too. The second calculus based physics, 4 nights a week for 8 weeks. Everyone who took it last summer told me it was a 2 month marathon.

Either way, I can taste this it is so close. I spent most of this semester always playing catch-up, between all of the extreme stresses at work, the stresses at home, the stresses financially. But now it has hit me, and I’ve been catching up quick.

Either way, I’m almost done, and for the first time in my life I get the chance to “walk.” Nothing like that to get you going. Now all I need is to hear back from UNCC regarding my application to transfer.