| By jr - Jun 10th, 2007 at 1:58 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
I probably should have said something sooner, but I didn't even tell my grandmother until the day before. As of about two weeks ago, I'm graduated. Done. Finished my time, got my paper. B.A., baby. Even sat through an interminable graduation ceremony (Amy Goodman is the single worst graduation speaker I've ever heard, hands down, and I've heard a lot) and took bad photos.
I don't recall seeing any posts about it: did anyone else get their ticket to ride this semester?
In any case, I'm having an online identity crisis: should I keep posting here now that I've graduated? I mean, this is a campus-oriented community, and hell, I got kicked off campus three years ago (long story, involving an illegal cat), so should I hand over the keys to the dorm room to the ResLife director at the door, take my minifridge and go home? I don't know if I should, but I certainly don't want to, because this site is certainly relevant beyond the campus gates. So don't expect to be completely rid of me just yet (suckers).
I didn't take the LSAT until February, after most of the law school application deadlines at places I want to go had either passed or were too soon to prepare for. So for at least the next year, I'm (thankya Lord) NOT going to be a student.
That's not particularly new for me. As some of you know, I routinely took semesters off to go work for political campaigns full-time. But now I don't have a base of operations to return to after the race is run.
My wife and I are relocating to cooler climes (see you SoCappers soon...and anyone got a 2B/1.5Ba dog-friendly townhouse to rent in NoVa or DC for under $2000 a month?) since I'm no longer compelled to live near school, and since there's no law school around here I'd want to attend. She already quit her job in spectacular fashion, and is sending applications to publishers in DC.
I guess graduation raises a lot of questions. And (theoretically, at least) I should now be fit to figure out answers. Perhaps that's the point: throw the bird out of the nest and make him or her fly. Every commencement, high school or higher, seems to have that underlying theme to it.
Anyone else out there desperately flapping to keep aloft?
!
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But everything works out in the end (or at least that's what I tell myself lol) so I'm not too worried.
Congratulations. You should go on a vacation or something.
I'm not flapping, per se (not yet), but this past semester was my first of grad school, and absolutely brutal.
I'm considering extending academia by a few years, though - get some sort of scholarship to China, and then there's an Intelligence Community Scholars program that'll pay you at GS-13 or so to get a second Masters. A year ago, I would have pegged myself as the last person looking to extend academia as far as I can because he's afraid of figuring out what happens afterward - now, not so sure. How it'll work out with my girlfriend of nearly 5 years is another issue; count your lucky stars that your wife is quitting her job and looking for work in DC alongside you. :)
Congrats on the degree, and the move! The Washington City Paper is your new best friend.
Man, I'll tell you, Amy Goodman couldn't have been worse if she tried. Her badness was directly related to her earnest self-righteousness. The thing is, she had already spoken on campus in the fall when she was doing her book tour, and her graduation speech was almost EXACTLY the same talk she gave then. It was all about her, and how cool she was, and how she's the only real reporter left on the air, and how brave she is, and how her book is a perfect indictment of today's media, and BLAHBLAHBLAHHOURLONGSALESPITCH BLAH.
Long, long story short: after the ceremony every alumni there that I knew (and for the week following, everyone I saw) told me how sorry they were that the speaker sucked so hard, and that we weren't able to escape our seats like they were in the back.
I mean, our other top choices for speaker were Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Al Gore. What the fuck my classmates were thinking when they decided to invite Goodman to give the same speech a second time (paying her another bundle of cash for doing so), I'll never know.
As I sat there during graduation, I was surprised by the mix of emotions that I felt. I anticipated wanting to race away the second that I was done, but the year of uncertainty between undergrad and grad made me clingy to what I had known.
And taking a year off. May not be too bad. I'm doing the same thing and feel like I'll learn more than I would if I went right to Law School/Grad school.