Damn it feels good to be a Master

I sort of can't comprehend that I'm DONE with school, for good. Or at least for awhile, so I can pay down some of these damned loans I've accrued over the past 2.5 years.

Somewhere in my head, I keep forgetting that it's all over and that I don't have to register for classes or schedule my social life around school work. I forget that I won't be heading to Rosemont 2 or 3 nights a week and I can watch TV like a normal person.

Graduation was nice. Thankfully, the rain held off so my extended family could attend the ceremony. I hid cookies in my pointy sleeves and shared some Irish coffee with Shawn. Our speaker was good, or at least better than my undergraduate speaker, who sucked royally and told us we were all over-privileged snots.

So...now what do I do with myself? I'm not sure. The obvious thing is to move forward in my career somewhat. I saw the Doc, Dr. McCormick* and Dr. Frechie last night and one by one all of them asked, When are you getting your PhD?

Currently, I have no desire whatsoever to write a dissertation. Nor do I know what I would get my PhD in. So I think I'm done with higher education. But never say never. In 5 years I could get itchy britches and suddenly might find myself hankering for another degree. We'll see what happens.

The rest of my weekend was spent housing people at trivia, helping out the Doc, crashing dinner parties, and seeing Star Trek, which I loved.

This morning when I came into work, I found my cube decorated with balloons, Congratulations streamers chris-crossing my chair and a cake on my desk. In the Production room there was a large banner reading "Class of 2009, To the MASTER: Congratulations!"

I'll say it again: Damn, it feels good to be a Master.

One real photo in my cap and gown:



*Dr. McCormick is LEAVING Cabrini and headed back to Texas! I'm heartbroken!