I can't believe it's been several months since I last posted. But when I look back on my semester, I'm also not surprised. It was crazy busy. It was my first 'official' semester as a PhD student, even though I had taken some doctorate level courses previously. I guess it was just a whole new level of work, though. I had many papers and projects, plus four different jobs. Although each job was only 5 hours a week, it was tough to remember what I was supposed to do and when. Anyhow, here are a few highlights from January.
I was able to spend New Years and New Year's Eve with my brother Bryan and his family in Gillette. I always enjoy spending time with them. The kiddos are always entertaining and I have a difficult time leaving when my time is up. On New Year's Eve, I was walking down their stairs to their basement where I sleep in a tent on a blow-up air mattress. (Back story is that their basement flooded last summer and they are in the process of remodeling and don't have a room to put me in.) As I was walking down, I reached to turn on the light and twisted my ankle. I tried to catch myself on the other foot, but twisted that ankle, too. I guess I yelled pretty loudly and Bryan came running down the stairs quickly. I felt bad because my 5 year old niece saw the whole thing. Hopefully she wasn't too traumatized. The result of twisting both ankles: major sprains. It wasn't until March that my ankles started feeling normal again. (A picture of one ankle is shown below.) I could walk up stairs a lot easier than I walked down then. When it gets cold, they still ache pretty bad.
I defended my thesis in December, just in time to technically graduate in December (even though I walked in May). It was a bit nerve wracking, but it went well. I finished all my rewrites and edits in 2 days (didn't sleep much during those days). It was so nice to get it done and over with. I had to walk across campus a bazillion times (not really exaggerating here) to get all my signatures and copies in, but I did it. Yay! Following is a picture of the cover. and the inside. It still seems surreal that I'm this far into my education. I don't feel much smarter. If anything, I have learned how to write 20 pages papers in less than a week and how to give presentations on said papers. I also have learned to exist on little to no sleep for about a week. (As I am typing this, I am up at 4 a.m.......not to work on anything, but because my brain won't turn off.) Anyhow, I earned my Masters of Science in Human Development. That means I'm qualified to....um, still thinking.....oh, still not sure......continue on in grad school! Really, I could teach at a junior college, but they often prefer people with PhD's. So, here I go!
