Oh the Places You Will Go...

I can officially cross one more thing off of my 30 before 30 Bucket List.

That's right ladies and gentlemen of the world...I am officially.... A COLLEGE GRADUATE!

As of May 14, 2013 I have an Associate's of Applied Science degree in Paralegal Studies!

This week has been amazing and overwhelming at the same time. In addition to graduating, there have been several other exciting developments, about which you can expect to hear in later posts. Suffice it to say, my life has taken on several changes in the space of a few days. It's exciting and scary at the same time!

The graduation ceremony was looooong and drawn out. Of course, since my degree falls within the School of Public and Social Services, we were the second to the last school to get to walk across the stage. Aaaand...because my last name begins with "T", I was the last person to walk across the stage from the School of Public and Social Services. LOL. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll marry someone who's last name is at the beginning of the alphabet, or at least, more towards the middle. Ha.

Anyway, it was a surreal moment. What was going through my mind as I took my walk of fame? " Heel, toe, heel, toe...don't fall girl." And as I reached the Chancellor to take my  diploma, "Smile girlfriend. Shake with your right, take with your left....keep smiling".

 Haha. And in a moment, it was over. The years of hard work, culminated in a single event that lasted for about 15 seconds. But wow...probably THE proudest 15 seconds of my life. My family was there. My 3 best friends were there. It was perfect.

Now, today...we celebrate!

My mom has been in town since Tuesday and today is my official graduation party. It's going to be a fairly small affair. So don't feel rained on if you didn't get an invite. Lol. I'm not one for big "to do's". My step-dad is going to do what he does best...grill! And that will be that.

And so...on to the next phase of my life....

Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Stay tuned!

Jubilation and 6 Days

It's late. I'm tired. I'm jubilant!

Yes, you read that right.

Jubilant!

I just completed the last of my finals...so...that means....I'm DONE WITH SCHOOL!

I mean like Done Done. As in "I'll take my degree now, thanks very much".

Not much of a post, but hey... I just needed to express my excitement!

6 days till GRADUATION!

A little sentimental....a little mushy...but I don't care...I love this song and I love Celine.

No apologies :p

Ladies and Gentlemen...a new day has come!

13 Days & The Waiting Room

Happy May Blog Land!

It's only 9 something in the morning and it's already a balmy 63 degrees! The windows are open in our apartment and I can literally hear the birds chirping. The chow wagon is in full gear down on the river front, and signs on the interstate are pointing the way to Churchill Downs. It's starting to look a lot like Derby time and feel a lot like summer. Love it!

Since it's May 1st that means.....only 13 more days until I graduate! It will be here before I realize it. This is my last normal week of classes with next week being Finals week. I can honestly say I have no worries about them.

My interview with the LBA went really well and the guy I met with has already sent my resume to 2 different law firms. Unfortunately, they are for receptionist positions, not paralegal positions. However, since I'm lacking in experience, I have to be willing to take what is available to get my foot in the door. Beggars can't be choosers.

In other Wonderland news...

Have you ever noticed that some of the most difficult times in your life are not when things are going wrong, but when you're waiting for something to happen? It's like you're in this huge waiting room and the only person who can move you through the room is God. And there is no rushing Him.

I have been waiting on something for a very long time. I've fought with myself, fought with God, bargained with Him, gotten angry, tried to fix and redeem situations, worn myself out trying to fix them, and finally surrendered to God's timing. I've gone through this same scenario not once, not twice, but probably at least 100 times. And I'm going through it again. The hardest thing when you've received a promise from God is waiting for it happen. And so often we try to "help" Him out by trying to manipulate events and people. Only to be rudely reminded that God absolutely cannot be manipulated.

I think that one of the most difficult things to do is to place God's Will ABOVE my human emotions. In a word...Restraint. Our pastor taught a wonderful lesson about Joseph and the restraint he practiced when his brothers came down to Egypt. In essence, he placed God's Will above his desire to immediately reveal himself to his brothers because they still had a lesson to learn.

Even though God's waiting room is a difficult and often frustrating place to be, I know that when I receive what He has promised it will have been well worth the wait.

Food for thought, eh?

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.         -Ecclesiastes 3:11

22 Days

I cannot believe that it has been a month since my last post!

To my faithful readers and followers, my sincerest apologies and thank you for your patience during my unexpected blogging sabbatical. As you may have already guessed, the reason behind my absence has been due mostly to school work.

Ladies and Gentlemen! This is it! There are officially only 3 weeks left until I graduate.

Teehee.

This morning I pulled my cap and gown out of their bag and tried them on for the first time. As I looked at myself in the mirror, my heart skipped a beat. I twirled around. Yep, I sure did twirl. Ha. Then I ran to my closet to figure out which shoes I was going to wear.

Black. Pointy toe. Patent Leather. 3 inch heel.

In case you were wondering.

Then I started rummaging around trying to figure out what I'm going to wear underneath the gown. I just happened to find a pink silk blouse from NY&C with the tag still on it. I had totally forgotten I had bought that shirt! So, of course I had to try on the shirt along with the shoes and my go-to black skirt. As I pranced in front of the mirror, I tucked the shirt in, untucked the shirt, added a scarf, took the scarf off, added a necklace, removed the necklace....and finally I decided that I need a thick black belt to go around the blouse if I leave it untucked.

So, my ensemble for Graduation Day is complete, I just need to go shopping for a belt.

Teehee.

My excitement is literally growing by the day. I have waited for this for SOOOOO long! And it's here! EEEEEEEKKK!!!!

What's more exciting is that this past Friday, I was able to work on my resume with a family friend, who's also the director of career development at IUS. So now my resume is complete and absolutely phenomenal! I've been contacting acquaintances who are lawyers and even submitted an application with the Louisville Bar Association Placement Department. Networking, networking, networking is what it's all about.

This is such an exciting yet scary time. I'm closing the door on one part of my life and stepping into a completely new and different world. On the one side it would be so easy to stay where I am and continue to work as a nanny indefinitely because it's comfortable. But that would be the easy and the safe thing to do. As I always say, 'Nothing risked is nothing gained'.

So Blog Land, I covet your prayers as I move out of one sphere and into a new one. I know that with your prayers and mine, that the LORD will lead and guide me to the right people and the right places!

22 days and counting...!

Could it Be? Is it Spring?!

This is a morning that dreams are made of! Our patio door is open, the balmy breeze is blowing in, the sunshine is filtering softly through the clouds, the birds are singing, and the frogs are just going crazy in the pond next to our building!

Ah. Spring time at last.

I hope.

For all I know we could have a few inches of snow again tomorrow. This weather has been anything but predictable of late. But, whatever the forecast is for tomorrow or even later in the day, I'm determined to enjoy this little interlude of divine spring time.

As it happens, this week was my spring break from school. I did still have to work, but it was quite nice to be able to sleep in a few mornings and to spend my evenings reading for fun instead of poring over the intricacies of Excel and Litigation. I could have worked ahead but I decided that I needed a break. In that vein, I haven't popped open a school book or even logged into BlackBoard to check my grades. I've absolutely refused.

Excitingly, I received my letter from school this week, confirming that my application for graduation has been accepted and that the date for the ceremony will be May 14! I can't remember if I've said this before, but I had not originally planned on walking in the ceremony. However, as the date draws nearer, I've decided that I am going to participate in the ceremony. This is quite possibly one of the biggest and longest time coming accomplishments of my life. I want to savor every single moment of it because I have worked SO hard for it.

In other randomness, my cousin turned me on to a group called 2Cellos. As my faithful readers, ya'll should know by now that I LOVE cello music. Add to that the fact that these guys are playing one of my absolute favorite Michael Jackson songs...and well...Epic-ness  has been achieved and I can die a happy woman. Teehee.

Anywho. Enjoy this awesome rendition of this song and then get outside and enjoy this beautiful spring day!

The End and Christmas

Let the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus commence! The semester is officially over! I got an A on the Civil Procedure final and a B on the Tort Final. Not too shabby!

It's an enormous relief. Looking back, the semester seems to have flown by. But while I was in the midst of it, it seemed like it would never end. The most exciting thing is that when the next semester starts in January, it will be the beginning of the end! My last semester ever! Hallelujah indeed!

It's now exactly one week before Christmas and I feel like I can finally get into the Christmas spirit. In honor of the end of the semester and Christmas, I present for your consideration, one of my my favorite Christmas songs...It always makes me cry every time I hear it.

Run In with Murphy

Nine days into NaNoWriMo and disaster has struck. Or rather Murphy with his dumb law has.

After my coffee was brewing and the dog had been taken out, I hopped back into the bed, plugged in my trusty Macbook and got ready to do some writing while the inspiration was freshly pumping into my brain.

I pressed the power button.

Nothing happened.

I pressed it again.

NOTHING HAPPENED.

Was the outlet not working? Had a fuse blown?

I looked at the little light on the power adapter cord. Or rather, I looked where the light should've have been. It was dark. No little green light was glowing back at me.

I felt panic rising up in my chest and the anxiety that is never very far away welled in my stomach and rose into my chest, threatening to cut off my air supply.

Ok. So. Admittedly I'm being a little dramatic. Ok. A lot dramatic. I, did, however, start to panic. I have research to do for school, papers to write, a PowerPoint to put together for Sunday, and a book to write!

This is NOT a good time for this to happen!

Here's the deal with my power adapter. It's the only problem I've ever had in the 4 years I've had the computer. Well that, and the fact that I need a new battery. So, when roughly a year or so ago, the power cord started to fray and eventually just broke in half, I replaced it with a cheap generic adapter from some company off of Amazon. As I now see, not the best choice as far as quality goes, but 20 bucks is a lot better than paying 80 from the Apple store. Did I mention that I never replaced the battery (which is $130 from Apple)? So, the Mac only works when plugged into the wall.

Suffice it to say, I wish I would've just bit the bullet and bought an adapter and cord from Apple. Besides the fact that I'm in the middle of writing a book that must be completed by November 30th, it is also roughly 5 weeks from the end of the semester, also known as, crunch time and the time when professors throw everything at you at once. Until I can get to work on Monday and use my bosses power cord, I have no way to access the information on my computer.

Haha. Oh the tragedy of it all.

In the mean time, I'm trying desperately to remember what the last thing I wrote in my book and pick up from there using my sister's laptop. I'm SO glad that she has a computer now, even though it's tough to share when we both have online classes. It is, however, better than nothing at all.

And it's getting to be that time of year where it becomes necessary to purchase presents for family and friends...what a perfect time to have to shell out $250 for computer parts.

BUT! I REMEMBERED THIS....

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. Romans 8:28
 

Counting it all JOY, Blog Land!

And Time Goes By....

I'm having a hard time believing that August is almost over. Before you know it will be Christmas time and the eve of a new year. But one thing at a time. I worked late last night and was driving home a little bit after 8. I was surprised to find that the sun was already starting to go down. By the time 9 rolled around, it was almost completely dark.

The days are getting shorter, announcing subtly to the world that one season is about to end and another about to begin. Fall, is as I'm sure I've mentioned before, my favorite time of year. I love the way the leaves look when they're turning colors and falling to the ground. I love how it's cool in the mornings and evenings. I love the smell of bonfires. I love going to pick pumpkins and buying Chrysanthemums for our balcony! Ah, fall!

But, we're not quite there yet. So for the time being I'm still enjoying the summer heat, the fact that the kids have gone back to school, and that my second to last semester of college has begun, as well. As is always the case, my postings may be fewer in number as I dive into the books and expend my creative energies on sucking up as much of the world of Tort Law and Civil Procedure as I can. I will, however, attempt to hammer out at least one post a week and maybe even surprise you with another excerpt from my book, if I can squeeze time in for more writing in that area too.

Oh! And here's a random question, which I really need an answer to. When is it ok, if ever, to ask a guy to dinner? Yes, Blog Land, someone new has caught my eye....but I don't know if I've caught his....should I ask? Or just wait for him to? Would love to hear your opinion on this matter!

Only 2 more days until the weekend!

Happy Wednesday!

Back to the Old Grindstone

With the beginning of a new year also comes the beginning of a new school semester. The three week break was nice, but now it's back to the old grind.

I'm one of those strange people who actually enjoys school. Point blank: I love learning. The most difficult part though, of starting a new semester with all new classes, is trying to determine how much time each class will require of me. I am taking Bankruptcy Law, Contract and Commercial Law, and Law Office Technology this semester. These aren't the most exciting classes in the world, and it's pretty much a given that that each class in itself will require at least 40 to 50 pages of reading and at least one writing assignment. Add a full time job, a second part time job, working in youth ministry, attending church services, and my own personal prayer and study time....well, it's obvious that time management will be key, and that my penchant for procrastination will have to take a permanent vacation.

It sounds a tad bit overwhelming...but... I'm quite excited. The completion of this current semester is bringing me ever closer to my goal of graduating from college. I will do whatever it takes to meet that goal. Besides growing in my relationship with Jesus, finishing my degree is my primary focus.

Because I know myself, I know that there will be days when I could care less if I ever graduate or not. There will be days when the last thing I want to do is read a 50 page chapter on the ins and outs of chapter 7 bankruptcy, or the intricacies of the Uniform Commercial Code. So, as I take a deep breath and prepare to dive into this new semester, I would ask that when you think of me, please send up a little prayer for me...that I will be able to keep my focus, my motivation...oh...and my sanity! Ha.