The End of an Era

Well, I'm done. After a mad dash to Graduate Studies yesterday at approximately 1:55 to get everything approved by 2:00, I finished my masters degree and am graduating in August.

And with that last desperate sprint, I reached the finish line for a lot of different things. After 17 years of school (and some preschool I guess), I am done with school, possibly for forever. I'm done with college, done with my masters, done with my thesis . . . it's a little surreal.

Although I've reached the finish line for many different things, most of all I feel like I've reached the end of an era that began in winter semester of 2009. Why then? I feel like life has changed very little since then. I did get married in 2010 and got my bachelor's in 2011, but even those events, as momentous as they were, still felt like part of a pattern rather than abrupt shifts. In fact, I feel like the last huge shifts in my life occurred back in 2009.

Let me explain. It was that semester that I really started taking engineering classes and seriously considering electrical engineering. It was during that semester that I made many friends in that major that I still do stuff with today. In particular, it was then that I met Kevin. And it was then that I started going to the Clyde Building all the time. So even after I got married, it was just a transition from being with Kevin all waking hours to being with Kevin all hours. After I graduated, it was just a transition from going to the Clyde Building all the time to going to the Clyde Building even more.

So when I look at how stable things have been for the last 3 years and how much they're going to change within the next few months (no more school, brand new baby, brand new state), I think it's safe to say that I've reached the end of an important era in my life. It's been a wonderful 3+ years, but it's time to move on to a new phase of life (the new moon phase, pun intended).

In the spirit of nostalgia, here are a few things about the past few years that I won't miss, and some that I will.



Things I won't miss

--Research. It has its moments, but more often than not it is frustrating, confusing, and downright annoying. And sort of lonely.


--Working with engineers. At least, not engineering professors. Don't get me wrong -- they are brilliant and considerate and make awesome advisers in a lot of ways. But when it comes down to it . . . they're still engineers. By this I mean some of them would say things that were . . . off-putting. Now, I know they made fun of all the students, so I shouldn't have felt singled out, but when you're kind of the only girl they have different things to make fun of, so I felt singled out anyway. At the beginning it was all about was how I looked 12 years old (just fyi, women don't take that as a compliment until they're like 40), and at the end it was all about how grotesquely large I was (which I didn't appreciate for some odd reason). And if I ever hear the word "waddle" again I may throw something. I guess the take-home message for all professors who may read this is that you are never quite as funny as you think you are, especially when you're making a joke at someone else's expense.


--My computer. The version of Firefox it ran was made in 2006. 2006! Now, I'm sure that back in 2006 Firefox 2.0.0.17 worked great, but by 2012 it was completely lousy. I couldn't check several websites, the BYU homepage was a complete mess, I couldn't make comments on Facebook, and by the end, gmail only showed up in html. I wanted to do a print screen of several webpages to garner pity, but even print screen didn't work on my machine. Furthermore, it was just soooooooo slow. I could have exactly one program running and it would still take several minutes for it to do anything. They're finally going to upgrade the computers this summer, go figure.



Things I will miss
--Research. It can be frustrating, confusing, and downright annoying, but when you figure out how to make the algorithm work or how to simplify the equation, it can be exhilarating.

--Working with Kevin all the time. Those of you who have heard us work on homework together may wonder if I really mean this. After all, there were times when we disagreed and were quite intense in our disagreements. But we both knew that we were disagreeing about how the homework should be done, and as soon as we came to what we thought was the right answer, the fight was over. So yes, I will miss working with him. I'll miss our date nights in the Clyde Building and our late-night adventures getting projects done and the giddiness we both felt when we finally got something to work at 11 at night. I feel like we were able to see problems from different angles and were really able to help each other learn the material better.

--Learning about engineering. One comment I've never appreciated is, "Good for you for going into a technical field. Then if something happens to Kevin you'll be able to support yourself." That is a 100% true statement (albeit a bit morbid), but I feel like I misses the point of why I went into engineering (or why any woman bothers to get an education). I really did like learning about the stuff! If I hadn't liked it I wouldn't have done it. The math, the applications, the theory, all of it was just fascinating. I've still got a list at the back of my mind of stuff I still want to learn about and textbooks I still want to read. And now that school's out of the way I may just have time for them all . . .