An Almost Alumni

By this time next week, I will officially be a Texas A&M University graduate.

Guys, holy cow.

I...don't even know what to do with myself. I'm this crazy mix of emotions. Predominately happy and sad. Happy because, well, it's about freaking time! Sad because I've enjoyed my time at A&M and in some ways I'm not exactly ready for it to end. And then there's the nervousness. Because in a few hours less than a week, I will be walking across the stage in front of thousands of people. And I'm really terrified that I'm going to trip.

So there's that.

But I'd say I'm mostly excited. I graduate at 9 a.m. December 17th, so I'll be getting up pretty early that day. That's okay, though—I have big, fantastic plans to drop by Starbucks before I go, so I should be caffeined-up and ready to rock the cap and gown.

And since I can't mail you, my lovely followers, my graduation announcement, I thought I'd post a picture of it.

The front!

The inside!

Ordering announcements was an adventure in and of itself. Way too many options for me to process, and way too many extras to add. And way too much money to spend. I managed to keep it right at $100, but still. Good grief. That's a lot of money for just 30 announcements. Even including the envelopes, seals, return address labels, and such. Fortunately I won't have to do this again. Unless I go to grad school. But I am choosing not to think about that yet.

All that's really left to do is order the diploma frame. And, you know, do the whole walking thing. Then I can finally stop stressing about it.

Yep, then I can just start stressing about the whole rest of my life.

But I've got plenty of time for that.

I've been spending a lot of my time thinking about graduation day, worrying about it, mulling it over. In the end, I've decided that instead of completely freaking out about the ominous "What's Next?", I'm instead going to take some time to just enjoy being done. Just being proud of what I accomplished.

Plus, Christmas is coming up. And Christmas is my favorite holiday. So I'm really intending to focus on fun, family, and happiness.

I should have a couple of new things coming up for you guys—I'll be posting some more of my writing. I've had a couple of people express interest in reading what I wrote for the Gross Out assignment in my workshop. I also plan to post what I wrote for my final, which is basically a parody of a final. So that should be fun.

Stay tuned, and as always, thanks so much for following my blog, guys!

The Eyes and the Storm

This is a piece I'm working on for my workshop. It is actually part of a bigger idea-in-progress. I posted another part of it a while back. I haven't figured out how the two parts will go together, as far as a timeline is concerned. Currently, I think this will end up coming before the other. If you're interested in reading the companion piece, you can find it here.

_____________________________

A cold wind kicked up across the lake. The clouds came in slowly, bearing the heavy burden of rain. The sunlight winked out, smothered by the smoky gray-black thunderhead.

The surface of the lake bucked and thrashed against the wind; the last remaining boats fluttered back to dock just as the first bullets of rain struck the tormented lake.

Cal watched from his perch on the window seat as the sky spilled out its sadness, cast a deceiving dusk-dark shadow over the midday sun. 

He felt a small but firm tug on the cuff of his pant leg and he rocked back on his heels to make room for his sister, who scampered up next to him and pressed both hands and nose to the chilled pane of glass. Her hot breath teased up a ghostly fog on the glass. With one precise little finger, she turned it into a frowning face.

“Rainin,” she said.

Cal nodded and hugged his knees to his chest, crossed his legs at the ankle. “Uh-huh.”

“Guess we can’t go swimming today, huh?” Cecelia turned her big blue eyes up at him, a glimmer of hope still hidden behind her mask of responsible acceptance.

“‘Fraid not,” Cal said, and the glimmer faded. “Maybe tomorrow, yeah?” He nudged Cecelia gently with his shoulder and let a small but encouraging smile play across his lips.

Cecelia perked up, though reluctantly. “Yeah, I guess. Maybe.”

Cal turned back to watch as sheets of rain cascaded down across the sky. He could see the small rowboat he built with his father teeter back and forth on the top of the water, straining against the dock line. A jagged spear of lightning fell from the sky, lit up the lake briefly, leaving an eerie stain behind Cal's eyelids. He counted the seconds, making it to three before the heavy groan of thunder came.

In truth, Cal was glad of the rain, of Cecelia not swimming. He still didn’t trust the water—not the water or the eyes it held.

The Best Laid Schemes

I don't always have things planned out. Especially not planned out really well. This semester, I did. I had everything all figured out, and a lot of plans laid out ahead of me.

But, as Robert Burns so eloquently puts it, "The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go often askew" —And indeed they do.

Very askew.

I was going to graduate in May. I was already registered for the last classes I needed here at A&M, with the exception of one. Business Math. I tried to take it here last semester and it totally ate my lunch, so I dropped it. This semester, I planned to take it online at the same place I took my last two Spanish classes; Midland College.

Which should have worked out fine. I had the go-ahead from my advisor and knew the credits would transfer. Piece of cake, right?

Wrong.

When it came time to register, I didn't have my student ID. It took me several days and even more phone calls and emails before I was finally able to get in touch with someone who would email me back. No one ever answered the phone—I left three or so voicemails—I have yet to hear back from them, even now. When I finally did find someone who could provide me with my student ID, I instantly logged on to register. Only to find that the class was full.

Maybe Midland college employs sloths.
This would explain why they can't reach the phone before it rolls to voicemail.

I went into panic mode. Without this class, I wouldn't be able to graduate in May. I started sending more emails, making more phone calls, and being just as frustrated at the lack of response I was getting. Then on Thursday, I had the good fortune to call and actually reach a person on the phone instead of an automated message. He was very helpful and gave me the email address and phone number of the professor teaching the course I needed so that I could contact him and ask if he'd be willing to take one more student. I emailed him promptly.

But by the time I heard back from him the next day (he said he was unable to force me in, and that I'd need to call the Dean), I had learned that I didn't have the pre-requisite to take Business Math at Midland College. Which I still think can't be right because I had no trouble signing up for it here—It was just the passing it here part that I couldn't do. But I had been checking back to see if the class ever opened up, and lo, and behold! It did! It was when I tried to register for it that I got a pop-up saying I couldn't.

So I made more phone calls and sent more emails, but ultimately nothing came of it. The last possible day to register came and went. And I still have not once had someone return my phone call. Any of them. I must have left about six or seven, and their message swears they'll return the call within 48 hours.

Apparently that's a flat out lie.

I turned around and tried to sign up for another Business Math class online through a different school, with slightly better luck. The advisor there was very helpful and tried very hard to get me in, but all of the people she contacted said it simply wouldn't be possible to fit me in.

So my plans? Down the drain. May graduation? Not so much.

I don't know whether I'll take the class over the summer and graduate in August or just wait until next semester and graduate in December. I'm leaning more toward December because honestly? I have things to do this summer. And I want a formal graduation—I've worked so hard to get this degree; well, to almost get it. When I do finally walk across the stage and get my diploma, I don't want it to be in a speedy end-of-summer graduation. Which is why May was ideal. But between August and December, December is closer to what I'm wanting.

I just don't know. I suppose I'm still sort of reeling from the fact that my plans went so completely awry in the first place. At first I was livid. Beyond livid. Just ask my Mom; she had to listen to my tears and my rage and my fist-shaking fury. But now I'm trying to look at it positively.

Everything happens for a reason. Ultimately it's all in God's hands anyway, so who am I to assume that everything is all wrong? In this, I'm trying to find the plus side, the benefits, the bright side. They're there, they really are. For one, I'll be able to focus more on my writing this semester. I'm taking two writing intensive courses. In just one of those, I'm expected to write a grand total of 150 manuscript pages, which is no small task. With the schedule I have this semester, I should really be able to spend good quality time on writing and revising and perfecting. And that's pretty exciting.

Also, though less importantly, I'll be able to graduate with my Aggie ring. When I was going to graduate in May, I was going to have to wait until after graduation to order it since I have to have X amount of completed hours. Not that it would kill me to wait, but as far as looking for the positive, it'll be nice to actually order and receive my ring while I'm still here in Aggieland.

I can spend more time at the career center, working with people who'll help me figure out where to go from here and what I can do with my degree. Aggies have some serious advantages when it comes to networking, so it's a huge benefit to have this at my fingertips. And considering I really don't know what I want to do after I graduate, as far as what kind of job I want to get, this is a definite bonus in having a surprise extra semester.

At least he has a plan!

Overall, I think I'm happy. Not so much that everything got mixed up and rearranged, or that things deviated so completely from my original plans. But happy that I do have a peace about it, and that I can see the silver lining.

Though it may not be my last semester here after all, I'm really looking forward to this semester. And it's always nice to start out a semester with a positive outlook—especially when so much has been altered.

This is what they call adjusting, right? Improvising? Rolling with the punches?

Oh yeah.

I got this.

If you think these cartoons are funny, you should browse the rest of Natalie Dee's site. She is the artist of these comics and I am in no way, shape, or form deserving of any credit for them. Check out her site! Hours upon hours worth of belly-laughs up for grabs!