3 years

That's all it took to start and finish graduate school. Wait...that's all it took? It took a heck of a lot of sacrificing other fun things to stay home and study or get up early to go to practicum or write a research paper...

Yesterday, I graduated.

It feels good to write that. I'm going to write it again.

I graduated!!!

At the ceremony, the speaker shared an anecdote that I can't recall the details of really (I'm a good listener), but the point was that in order to earn a master's or professional degree, you basically have to be in school half your life. Well, let's see... 12 years of high school + 4 years of undergrad + 3 years of grad school = 19 years. I'm 29. I've spent more than half my life in school! Yikes! No wonder I like making lists and crossing things off when I'm done with them and reading books and watching documentaries. I like learning.

However, I am very much ready to be done with school. And I look forward to learning on my own time (in continuing ed classes and in the comfort of my own home while eating popcorn and drinking Cherry Coke Zeros).

You know who else is ready to be done with school? This guy - he graduates on May 22.

The only thing I have left to do before I am officially done with school is survive my oral defense on Monday morning (10 a.m. CST). Basically, I get to meet with a panel of three professors who can ask me anything. They might ask questions to clarify some of my answers from my written exam I had a month ago, or they could just ask whatever they want related to speech, language, hearing, swallowing, cognition...stuff like that.

 Thanks, Mom, for coming to my graduation and taking us
out for deeeeelicious Afghani food!

So Monday morning, I would appreciate any good vibes you could send my way!

Thanks!

And in case you're wondering, you can now call me master. :) Just kidding... But if you really want to know, my official title now will be Heidi Lastname, MA, CF-SLP (which stands for Master of Arts, Clinical Fellow-Speech-Language Pathologist). After nine months of being a clinical fellow, I'll be a CCC-SLP, which stands for Certificate of Clinical Competence-Speech-Language Pathologist.

Pig tails & sunglasses

It's been a looonng time since my last post. Sorry about that -- I've been a little busy with school and am keeping my fingers crossed that I pass my comprehensive exam and get to graduate in three weeks. I'll find out about that in about a week.

Anyway.... aside from school stuff, I'm happy to report that I've had the chance to hang out with this cute little gal for two weekends in a row! Is this not the cutest little girl you've ever seen?

Yeah, that's my niece. We got to hang out for a little while today, but these pics are actually from a week ago.

Just thought some of the fam would like to see some cute Finley pics. I love her. See some more pics here. 

You know it's a good day when...

...you get an email like this:


University of Minnesota
Graduate School Spring 2010 Commencement Ceremony

Dear Heidi,

Re: Attendance verification

This e-mail serves as confirmation that the Graduate School has received your Commencement Attendance Approval form and is planning on your attendance at the Spring 2010, University of Minnesota Graduate School Commencement Ceremony.


Bring it.