Gradu-what?

Today I had what is hopefully the final advising session of my undergraduate career. I walked in, sat down, informed Dr. Vrbsky (yes, she would like to buy a vowel) that I had 18 credits left to graduate and I intended to take them all in the Spring. She confirmed this to be the case, after a bit of chit-chat she signed my sheet gave me some papers and I went home. I hold now, in my hands, a mystical piece of paper known around these parts as an “Application for Degree.” Crazy. I mean, I knew when I started college that I’d eventually get a diploma, but until just today it seemed like a distant event, like people my age think about retirement. (My parents are thankful that the diploma came first)

It’s odd, though. One day you’re just going to school, work, etc… like you have been for years and the next day you’re reaching into your big bag of Classes Left to Take and clawing at the bottom. What gives? Hell if I know, but after next semester I’ll either be graduated or in an institution, one. My course-load for next semester rivals the most difficult final semester possible.

Sure, I won’t be taking algorithms… I won’t be taking ECE 480… but I will be taking Stats II, Intro to Numerical Analysis, and four 400-level CS courses. So if, after January, you all don’t hear from me it’s perfectly normal… I’m just buried in school work trying to graduate.

I will say, however, once all of the law schools have decided to take me or drop me, I will be making a bold statement often made by college students whose plans for the immediate future are no longer contingent upon their performance in the present: ‘D’ is for Diploma.

Until that day, however, I’ve got to keep working so as not to look like any more of a slacker than I already appear to be.