The beginning of the end, and a new beginning.

Utah Valley University

I am officially enrolled for the rest of the classes needed for my undergraduate degree. This has been a long time coming. I have been going to UVU off and on since I graduated high school in 2003 (2001 if you count the classes I took while IN high school). Before committing to focus full time on college in summer 2008, I dropped out twice, changed majors at least 6 times - History, Psychology, Humanities, English, Communications, Earth Science (geology), and Environmental Studies, to name a few, before finally landing on Integrated Studies- emphasis in English (again) and Cinema Studies. Not to mention all the minors I have considered, the countless interests I have explored, clubs I've joined, activities, concepts I have been introduced to, conversations had, conferences attended and planned, internships, presentations I've sweated through, papers, tests, stress, fun, and all that comes along with the college experience. I have really become who I am today because of all of the experiences I have had in my time as a college student, all of the great opportunities I have experienced, and the people I have come in contact with.

UVU Library- where I have spent a great deal of time during my undergrad academic career.

As this part of my life is drawing to a close, I can't help but reflect on moments when I didn't think this time would ever come. When people would ask what my major was and I could not give a straight answer, when someone would ask when I was graduating and the only answer that made sense was "never", all I could really focus on was the segmented here and now of powering through the last bout of class finals for a semester, the last nerve wracking presentation (I loath public speaking), or the 10+ page paper with the looming deadline that I had yet to start... Now as the end of this part of my education draws near, I feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude for all of these experiences, the hardships and frustrations, all of the people who've helped and taught me along the way, and of course great times I have had with those I have met in at UVU. So to those of you who fall into this category- a big hug and thank you from the core of my being.

I'm looking forward to being finished, being graduated, but it does come with a sensation of bitter sweetness. Many of my friends and classmates graduated this past April, and while I could not be happier or prouder of them, it is strange that we will no longer have that college environment in common, which binds us all together. We've all been on this ride together for so long, it seems strange that we will all go in very different and separate directions in the coming years. Having been marking the box that says 'student' for so long, it will surely be strange to do something else. It will be an adventure I personally am ready to take on, at least for a short time until I figure out exactly what is happening for graduate school programs in the future (I'm hoping to find a law school who will accept me), but even that is a completely different beast than what I have been engulfed in here and now. All the potential changes and movements make me really try to savor the interactions that I have, because who knows what the future holds.

I guess growing up is inevitably around the corner, for those other chumps, not for me :)