mission: accomplished.

Guess what?! Today, I turned in (drumroll, please)...

My LAST coursework...EVER.

EVER!

Oh, I've still got a dissertation to write. But that's the fun stuff,  the part where I get to just pick interesting things to read and then write about them. (And PhD's are more of the same :)) This paper felt a little like I was sticking my brain into my washing machine's "Spin" cycle and trying to submit the drippings for a grade. Sorry to be so graphic. The last few weeks have been pretty stressful...

But guys! This is 5 years of higher education coming to an end! I don't think I was this confused over my undergraduate education, 'cause, hey. No one can sustain the undergraduate lifestyle forever and live to tell the tale. (I'm talking about all the intense studying, obviously.)

But I also left undergrad feeling hyper-aware of everything I didn't know yet. I'm not sure if that's the way everyone feels, but I felt it strongly enough that I decided I needed to go to grad school. There were just too many things I still needed to learn! Like Old English. And how to decipher the handwriting of sixteenth-century Scottish secretaries. And I certainly wasn't going to read hagiographies in my spare time (Y'all know that I much prefer a nice, jaunty poem about gassy knights who fall off their horses. Yes that's a link, because I knew some of you would think I wasn't serious. It's poem 77, if you fancy a peek into my world.)

Now, I've been made to read, understand and discuss a lot of things that no one had ever really had a chance to teach me before. It has been SO eye-opening. And now that I've done that, guys, I can safely say that that I really do not ever want to enroll in another full-time, taught degree again. But then, the great thing about this degree is that I finally feel like I have all the tools to pursue the things that most excite my mind.

I also have a some mental exhaustion, about 20 books out from the library, not one but FOUR different piles of laundry on my floor, a wicked Coca-Cola addiction, and about 8,800 words under my belt. So, even though I'm SO excited about "contributing to human knowledge" (to quote my wonderful boyfriend, who totally believes in all my bizarre goals. I'm the luckiest).... Right now, I'm just really excited about watching bad TV and eating junk food.