Well, Its Done!

Well, it's done! My Master's Degree is complete. I turned my last paper in Thursday after my final final exam. I got my grades back and they passed me. I'm just waiting on the diploma.

Now what? I have 4 weeks off and then I get a real job. I am going to use that time to develop a business plan to open a private practice with a friend and fellow graduate and start my life.

My final GPA: 3.328.

Ghetto Quoteboard

For those of you who remember, here they are. For those of you who don't, I'm not going to explain it. In no particular order, with comments as necessary for prosperity (punctuation as on the quoteboard)...

"You guys live in the ghetto!" -Katie Wisniewski (originator of the Ghetto)

"Kick 'em in the nuts and walk away." - Denae

"Good Ghandi" - Denae

"I feel so bad. You guys shouldn't have to live here." - DC Maintenance man

"Wow, you look big from here" - Kelly to Carol, 1.5 inches away.

"I need to move my Bible out of the middle of the floor — its being a stumbling block" - Sarah W

"Will you leave my mouth alone?" - Carol Hiner

"The garbage disposal is vomiting!!!" - Denae Wittmeier

"Our insides match!" - Sarah when she discovered the similarity between Carol's and her dress

"I have to get out of this chair: its making me dizzy!" Sarah

"Where do they expect you to sleep?" - Dad Wisniewski

"I wanna be a girl!!!" - Kelly

"This place isn't so bad. I wouldn't live there, but it's not so bad." - Anonymous

"Yay God!" - Denae after small and large demonstrations of God's greatness

"...Thingie..." - Sarah about anything.

"Most of us were not us for most of our life. Were you-you? I wasn't me!" said by Carol as Sarah shakes her head

"Do you have smoke detectors?" - Mom Helms

"Oh shit! This hurts like the Devil." - Denae when getting her finger caught in the garage door

"Its the ghetto~I can't take a shower in the ghetto!" - Kelly

"Let's go for it baby...I need some orange juice!" - Denae t-ed off (BIG TIME)

"I'm such a spaz" - Denae

"Now is not the time to be conservative, you're wearing a bed sheet!" - Kelly Helms

"Sioux Center has a ghetto?!" - Dr Veenstra

"For the next time you girls burn something on the stove" - Mom Helms

"I'm talking to myself and I don't know how I'm going to respond!!!" - Kelly panicking about working too much; upon being informed that the leak would be fixed

"What just happened here?" - Carol. "An act of God" - Denae.

"That person got bit by two penguins! How lucky can one person get?!" - Sarah W. Who else?

"Look at us - all sitting around crocheting and reading like a bunch of old maids. We could be the Golden Girls!" (i.e. us when we're 90). - Denae

"Who needs TV for entertainment? We have Kelly!" - Carol

"The ghetto doesn't have ghetto sauce? I'm confused" - Kelly

"They expect you guys to live here??" - Dad Wisniewski

"That's ridiculous!" - Carol and Denae on boys

"Dial 8! Dial 8!" - Carol waking up to a fire next door (Sept 11, 2001; approx. 45 minutes before the towers were hit)

"In the ghetto, we need all the safety measures we can get." - Kelly

"I'm scared to use your bathroom. I've been holding it all morning." - Mom Wittmeier

"Oh goodness, I just made some trouble." - Denae breaking the blinds

"You guys live on the wrong side of the tracks." - Josiah Murphy

"You know you've made yourself at home when you can bring over the tea kettle" - Sarah

"Wanna hear a funny story?" - Denae

"Hey check this out!" - Kelly; "I don't wanna check that out!" - Carol (about a strap/strapless bra)

"We're paying how much for this?" - Carol

"I'm a bad influence on myself" - Kelly in a struck tone

"I can't tell what persons are anymore!" - Carol how you can tell she's been proofreading too much

"I've lost my owner's manual. I don't know how to operate myself!" - Sarah (she did find it moments later)

"Oh Denae changed her head." - Kelly

"Fire! Fire! What do I do? - Kelly reacting to the pan melting on the stove

"I actually feel clean today! I took a shower in the other apartment." - Sarah

"I just wanna be the syrup" - Denae

"I find philosophy really easy. you make some statement that you don't fully understand and everyone else does then, five minutes later, you get it." - Kelly

"Oh I guess your hair does feel jelly" - Kelly to David Hjelle after Denae put gel in his hair

"No offense, but your apartment is kinda crappy." - Matt Hilbelink

"Did you steal all the sleep I didn't get?" - Sarah

"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in the world. T'would be a pity to damage yours." Wesley; Princess Bride.

There you go. In memory of all the good times and in forgetting all Manicotti.

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance is the concept in which there are two thought pattens that do not coincide and yet one is working to replace a dysfunctional one with a more functional one. Such as a juvenile offender moving towards a life without crime: there is a dissonance between the thoughts he once had and the ones he needs to have to reform.

So I'm experiencing that. I have 12 days left and once again my college/university days will be behind me. I'm ambivalent. But I'm also having a bit of trouble figuring out why people talk as if getting a Masters is sort of an exclusive club. I understand that it takes work to achieve this level of education, but really, they talk about it as if it's like the honor roll. I've never been smart enough or able enough to actually be listed on any sort of honor roll!

Grad School (let's specify my Masters), my Master's Program, felt easier than college. If you look at my grades, you would agree with me. I graduated college with a 2.89GPA and as it sits, one semester shy of completion, my Masters GPA is 3.12 (I am expecting two A's, one C+, and a B I think this semester so it should go up a bit). And to boot, I have also achieved the Dean's List one semester. How does that happen? I hardly seemed to break a sweat most semesters (we'll all not count Fall Semester 2009...we're just thankful that is over) and I actually did ALL my reading except the reserves for Systematic Theology 1 and 3. I also read at least one extra book (one not counted in anyway for my Masters), generally speaking a novel but some non-fictions, a semester for the past three or four terms (I read two this semester: Screwtape Letters and The Count of Monte Cristo).

Its not to say that I'm not proud of myself or anything like that but many of my fb-friends have expressed how proud of me they are and although I'm extremely grateful to have friends that encourage the crap out of me (thanks Denae, you were probably the one that got me through that Fall Semester...remember the 12 papers, 12 reading assignments, 1 presentation, 3 -or 4- exams, one final project, and 30 days to do it?) I'm just not sure all the pomp-and-circumstance is not overkill. I just want to say, it didn't take that much work. I, for the first time in my life, not only breezed through school, I also thoroughly enjoyed it and don't want it to stop.

So for all of my wonderful cheerleaders out there: THANK YOU SO MUCH!! In 12 days, I graduate and my free advice stops. (Sorry, my prof told me that was a liability.)