I Didn't Graduate

I know you're thinking something really crazy right now, but it's actually not what you're thinking. No, I didn't flunk out. And yes I did really well on all my finals. But I didn't graduate.

Up until November, I planned to graduate in January. That is until I found out that the College of Health Professions and Social Work "will not be holding a winter commencement ceremony." However, I "may walk in the Spring commencement ceremony if [I] wish." Sorry, but I've been waiting for my diploma for four and a half years since August 2009, I'm not waiting any longer than I have to.

I understand that it's my choice to not wait until May, but it still sucks that I don't get to walk across the stage in front of my family and friends with a cap on my head and a rolled up piece of paper in my hand as they play a recording of Pomp & Circumstance.

Kristo's graduation ceremony was last week. (of course they held one for the college of liberal arts.) I was so incredibly proud of him and all that he's accomplished (2 Bachelor's degrees with distinction in the major for econ!!!!), but it was bittersweet in the fact that I didn't get to close my college career like everyone else.  That bratty voice inside my head kept saying "that should be me." But he's a really good boyfriend and he understood how I felt which led to this picture.

Every once in a while, you relearn the lesson that you can't always get what you want. It sucks, but it's a very concrete part of life. So how do you deal? You find a solution. If you can't get what you want, you find another plan. Which is exactly what I did. I ordered my senior portraits. They cost me almost $200 (HIGHWAY ROBBERY), but it's worth the fact that I can send my capped and gowned self to all of my relatives. And at least I can pretend that I graduated.

If all else fails, try to find the good in the situation. I'm lucky to have a job in my chosen field before I even receive my diploma, graduated or not. So here's to life lessons and keeping your head up.

What are some life lessons that you weren't so happy to learn?

Weekend Shenanigans & Studying for Finals

Hey Bloggers, it's Monday! I'm sure you're all still thawing out since this is basically what the United States looked like this weekend. Except you, Florida. What da hale?

I wish I could say that my weekend was full of fun shenanigans, but I spent the majority of it in my room, at my desk, studying. The most exciting thing that happened this weekend was leaving my room for 3 hours to go drink wine with my best friend.

Friday I cleaned the whole first floor and put up all the Christmas decorations. And studied. Ate dinner. And studied. Then drank wine. And studied.

Saturday, I studied all day, then sang at Mass and went to Amy's. We talked about boots, school, work and how much we missed each other. Oh, and how I'm leaving for Mexico in FIVE DAYS. Then I came home and studied some more.

Sunday, I studied then turned on the Eagles game to see this.

The Eagles won after the most exciting game I've ever seen and that means I get free coffee today at Dunkin. Yay!

Studying is such a process for me so I thought I'd share it with you.

8 stages of studying for finals

Stage 1 - "Ah, I have plenty of time!"
Stage 2 - Contemplate starting soon.
Stage 3 - Get distracted by Pinterest.
Stage 4 - Put game face on.
Stage 5 - "Crap, is this on the test?"
Stage 6 - Go into panic mode.
Stage 7 - Consider dropping out to be a stripper.
Stage 8 - Give in to exhaustion.

XO - Monny

Giving Thanks

Hello, my pretties!

Guess what I did last night. I finished my last paper and got to bed before midnight! It may not be my best work, but it's good and it's finished and I won't have to write another 6-8 page essay for a very long time. I need a drink.

But I digress. The real point of this post to to tell you about my Thanksgiving, which seems like a million years ago now. Let's talk about it. Or not. Maybe we'll just let the pictures do the talking. Yeah, that sounds good.

 My aunt's gorgeous centerpiece at the 21+ table.

Peggy made pumpkin soup and we put it in a pumpkin serving bowl. I'm still laughing at the irony.

This is Kristo's plate. Mine wasn't colorful enough to take a picture of.

Mom-Mom and 8 of her grandkids (and 2 boyfriends). Me and chef Peggy. Me being proposed to by a dog...maybe. Gianna wanted us to have a selfie. and the girl cousins sharing the world's stretchiest(is that a word?) fleece blanket.

*this is where I stopped writing to go get my senior portraits taken. I looked fab in case you were wondering*

We left my aunt and uncle's house at 12 and got home around one. THEN WE WENT SHOPPING. We went to Target, JC Penney, and H&M and got home at 6 am. Yeesh. But I did see the cutest bird ornament and didn't buy it. #sadpanda

And that was the Thanksgiving recap you really haven't have been waiting for.

Oh. Here's a Thanksgiving selfie too.

Have a great Tuesday! I know I will as soon as I hand in my paper! EEEEP!

XO - Monny

Motivational Monday

Hi Bloggers! I hope you all had a fantastic, food-filled, frugal (haha, right) Thanksgiving weekend!

I have the last essay of my undergrad career an 8 page paper due tomorrow so I don't have time for a normal length blog post. I will be back tomorrow with some pictures of my Thanksgiving shenanigans, but for now I will leave you with the first of many Monthly Motivational Monday posts! Make sure you link up with Rachael or Heather. 

unfortunately it's sold out on Etsy

This is exactly what I need to keep repeating to myself until I get this paper finished. See you tomorrow!

XO - Monny

Can You Hear Me Now?

Good morning afternoon!

Today's Blogtember Prompt is Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.

Since I was a senior in high school, I wanted to be a Speech-Language Pathologist. I wanted to work with stroke and accident victims, administering speech therapy and teaching them how to talk again so they could regain some normalcy in their lives. I decided that I didn't want to work with kids because they were so young and they didn't know what they were missing out on, whereas adults were used to talking their entire lives just to have their voices taken away from them. I wanted to give a voice to those who didn't have one.

When you're an undergrad for Speech Path, you don't only learn about speech stuff.  There are two branches of Communication Sciences --speech and hearing. You need a graduate degree to get a job in either field so I always knew there was even more education ahead. I never wanted anything to do with hearing science (audiology). I thought, "the ear is gross and boring. I wanna help people talk." And I thought this for years. Three years.

Fall semester of last year, I had a really difficult class. It was writing intensive and I could. not. deal. I was working 25-30 hours a week, plus coming home and doing schoolwork after being out of the house for 16 hours. I dropped my availability to just weekends and I still couldn't catch up on my homework. I had a nervous breakdown and after having too many panic attacks in one week, I talked to my parents and then my adviser for advice. I dropped the class that was giving me such a hard time and I felt like a failure. How would I ever survive graduate school when I couldn't handle one stupid undergrad class? I looked at application requirements for graduate programs for speech and seeing the 3.8-4.0 average GPAs of the acceptees, I freaked out.

Then there was a moment of clarity...

I decided to Google audiology and I fell in love.  I wanted to know everything about it -- the anatomy of the ear, hearing aids, sound waves, cochlear implant videos on Youtube. I looked up schools with Audiology programs and found that they were less competitive than the speech ones. The degree is a four-year clinical doctorate(scary!), but I finally found my calling in life.

I'm graduating in January so I'll be attending grad school next Fall. This semester is going to be rough between work, classes, taking the GREs(yikes!), asking for recommendation letters, and applying to the 10 schools I have on my list.

So this is the most long-winded post I've ever written. Here's a baby hearing his parents' voices for the first time. Love it.

Funny how one freak-out can change your whole life.

XO - Monny

Surviving Syllabus Week

Happy Friday, Blogland!!! I've never been happier to see a Friday, even though I have to head to work at 4 o'clock. The first week of school is almost over. And my sanity remained intact (for the most part). Tonight, I'm gonna get drunk go home from work and get my shit together for Tuesday so I can make the most of the long weekend.

Since I'm in my 19th year of school, I think it's safe to say that I'm an expert and getting the first week of school overwith. So I thought I'd put together a little how-to on making through the first week of classes, otherwise known as syllabus week. Read this, and then go grab a drink because the weekend is here and it's time to celebrate!

Step One: Books
Before you even think about buying your books from the school store, check out the plethora of rental and buyback sites to see if you can get it cheaper anywhere else. My friend Megan at Yammering Yankee wrote an awesome post about CampusBookRentals.com. I legit saved myself $280 by renting this semester, and I don't have to worry about burning the textbooks when I'm done with them (kidding...kinda). Your school bookstore is going to charge you the absolute highest price because they know that college kids are lazy and don't want to do the footwork to find the cheapest price. RENT RENT RENT!

Step Two: Syllabi
If your professor posts the syllabus on Blackboard or whatever site before the class starts, print it! It makes it easier to follow along on the first day and it makes you look like less of an asshat because you don't have to raise your hand to say you don't have one. Also, you don't have to spend the entire first day of class by frantically scribbling notes about office hours and assignments. It's all in front of you.

Step Three: Be early
During the first week of classes, get to your classroom as early as possible. Make sure you get the seat you want and put up your flag to claim your territory.  No one wants to be stuck in the corner behind the tallest kid in the room, or in the dreaded front row. My chosen seat is usually in the second row (so I can Tweet unnoticed) in the left-handed desk (lefties ftw). God help the person who decides to take my seat after the first week of classes YOU WILL PAY.

Step Four: Make friends
If you're lucky like me, you've already scoped out which of your friends are in your classes so that when a professor says "find a partner" on the first day, you can happily avoid the creepy mouth-breather next to you. If you're not so lucky, start a conversation with someone who looks kinda decent before the professor even gets there.
  
Step Five: Caffeine!
We all know that when school starts, your sleeping schedule is going to make you hate your life be a hot mess. 5 days in and mine is not back to normal yet. I've been going to bed between 10 and 11 pm and my body still wants to stay up til 2 am. NOT COOL. I found out the hard way that it really, really doesn’t like waking up at 5 in the morning. To beat the morning and afternoon sleepiness, make sure you find the nearest Starbucks, Saxby's, or Seattle's Best and introduce yourself to espresso drinks. Or if you're cheap like me, you can be bff's with your travel mug and Keurig and save a shitton of moolah to use at the bar.

If all else fails, Google tropical beaches and cocktail recipes or take a nap. Sometimes it’s easier to pretend that it’s summer. Have a good semester and try to keep your cool. 14 weeks until finals!

Linking up with Whitney for the first time. It's Friday so #backthatazzup ! Gatsby came out on DVD this week so it's only fitting to use one of Jay-Z's new masterpieces.

XO - Monny