The Beginning of the End (of Grad School)

It's been a year and a half since I last updated this blog. I have no clear reasoning why I left it when I did, other than grad school does, in fact, get more difficult and more busy as the years progress. But, I'm finally in the home stretch, in my final year of grad school with a graduation date of December 2018, and I think that deserves documenting.

However, a lot has happened between that last post and now. So here are some photos of the highlights from the past year and a half (in no particular order) --

Went to Australia (and promptly fell in love with Australia)

Attended some weddings

Spent time with family (and adopted family)

Visiting Ohio to bid Jeff farewell before he left for his year-long deployment
in South Korea

Post ghost-tour in Colonial Williamsburg

Doing a family escape room (spoiler - we didn't escape in time)

Cheering on Dad as he gets inducted as president for the AAE

Walking the Trail of Lights with the Avants

Had on campus adventures

That one time Ellen came on campus and told everyone to dress like Beyonce

Moved the entire lab to a new building. This is one of the many
crates of garbage we filled

Saved a baby dove

Stalked baby Bevo

And just adventured in general

Opening Day with the Creightons and Aunt Gretchen

Went to Universal Orlando with Mindy

Found Elvis in Memphis

Did my first 10K as part of the Air Force Marathon

Went and saw my favorite, Jeff Dye

Day One Thousand Forty

This extremely extended blog hiatus was brought to you by a week long trip to Virginia followed by two weeks of frantic packing to move to a new apartment. But I'm back! More to follow later this evening...

Day One Thousand Thirteen

You guys, it's so hot and muggy here right now, and it's only going to get worse. But this past weekend I threw caution to the wind and went to the last UT baseball game of the season, and we actually won! That was an unexpected surprise. And I got to hug Hook 'Em, and it was the absolute best. Here's some photos.

Here's UT warming up, with some excellent leg action by the pitcher.

Bob and I also got some sweet HEB shades as a reward for getting there early. I'm
hoping if I wear them while I grocery shop I'll get a discount.

Hook 'Em and I bonded. This may be one of my
new favorite photos ever.

The Hook 'Em busted out some sweet, sweet air guitar moves.

Just look at him go.

Besides the crazy muggy weather, this week has actually turned out to be really great so far. I met some of my parents friend at church on Sunday, found someone to go see Gavin DeGraw and Andy Grammar in concert this coming fall, and then found another friend to go see Jon McLaughlin with me (also this fall). I've been a concert ticket buying machine these past couple days, and it makes me so happy.

And tomorrow...one of my best friends who I've known since 6th grade is coming to town! She's never been to Texas before, so it should be fun. And probably a bit of a shock to her pacific northwest system.

Day One Thousand Eight

In Texas, with hot summer weather comes insane tropical storms like the one that woke me up at 6 this morning and lasted until 1 in the afternoon. Thankfully I have a job that allows me to work at home when the weather and roads seem particularly vicious.

Finals have officially passed at UT, meaning my TAing responsibilities for the spring have come to an end. No more grading of 122 exams! Atleast not until the fall. Campus is already so much calmer. My first year of grad school, I hated having to work during the summer. Now, it's my favorite time to be in lab. Funny how things change. While the semester at UT has ended, my high school tutoring kids are still going strong in their school year, meaning weekend tutoring sessions press on. One of these days I'll have a full weekend to myself. One of these days...

Until then, I'll continue having my Pirates of the Caribbean marathon and enjoy the small piece of weekend that will come my way after tomorrow.

Day One Thousand Two

This year, I've found myself way more reflective on/after my birthday than usual. Maybe it's the fact that my age now visibly shows that I'm closer to 30 than 20, or maybe it's just caused me to acknowledge that I've finally reached a point in life where I actually feel somewhat like a functioning adult (not always, but definitely more often). It's that moment where you feel like you're doing pretty well being independent and taking care of yourself, but at the same time regularly struggling with feeling like you're floundering.

I made a lot of progress in my year of being 25. I made it a full year living on my own (this is a big deal, just trust me), started over in my search for a church that I felt connected with and am slowly working on establishing myself somewhere new, and got better at not letting the threat of going somewhere alone keep me from doing something I want to do. Like baseball games and concerts and comedy shows.

This bird also decided he didn't need anyone else to enjoy
some baseball.

 I worked on being true to myself and my interests, which included searching for a book club and eventually joining one. While this provided much fodder for others to poke fun at me, I haven't regretted it at all. Probably one of the biggest shifts this year has been finally feeling comfortable in grad school - feeling like I'm not the dumbest person in the room, like I made the right decision in deciding to go to graduate school and deciding to stay in graduate school even when things really, really sucked (and sometimes continue to suck). I now find that I can read and understand things like this and how it integrates with my own research.

Feast your eyes. Ready to go to grad school, yet?

I'm excited and a little terrified to see what being 26 brings. I have some ideas of what I would like it to bring - a greater sense of independence and self confidence, greater consistency with being active/going to the gym, and being more accepting of the fact that I'm not meant to have everything figured out just yet.

I've only been 26 for three days now, but it's gone pretty well so far. I have family that sends me ridiculous cross-dressing ballerina birthday cards (it's a long story) and who make sure I have a box of birthday gifts that arrive to me exactly on my birthday for me to open, and I have friends that know me well enough to get me things like a small alpaca figurine, because there is never a time when those silly looking creatures don't make me smile. I think that makes me pretty lucky.

Day One Thousand

It's really late and I'm exhausted, but I can't not post on my one thousandth day in Texas. It's a crazy milestone and hard to wrap my head around. As is the fact that I turned 26 today. 26?! Officially  closer to 30 than I am to 20?! That can't be.

All in all, it was an awesome day. I slept in, got to talk to both parents and my brother on the phone, got some surprise birthday boxes in the mail, and was graciously taken out for a nice birthday dinner by a good friend and her parents. I ended the day watching Sherlock, and it was the perfect end to a pretty wonderful day.

Day Nine Hundred Ninety Nine

You know it was a hot day when you walk inside your apartment and think, "man, it's so nice and cool in here!" ....then you look at the thermostat and it informs you that it's 78 degrees in the apartment. For those who aren't aware, we climbed into the 90s today here in Austin, with 300% humidity, and it was a brutal awakening for what's to come in the summer. Be gentle with me, Texas. Be gentle.

I have quite literally been running ragged the past two weeks tutoring and grading and giving review sessions and office hours for the class I TA for. I go to work, run around meeting students all day, drive home, spend 15 minutes shoveling food in my face for dinner, then go back to my car to meet high school kids for tutoring. It's been an exhausting process, but also an enjoyable one, as I genuinely do like helping people understand chemistry. Only one more week of undergrads and three more weeks of high school tutoring and we can all relax for the summer. Them more so than me, but whatever.

Tomorrow I will have been in Austin for 1000 days. Quadruple digits. Tomorrow I also turn 26. The older I get, the more I understand when people used to tell me how life seems to fly by as you get older. Tomorrow is a day of milestones. I'll celebrate it by sleeping in (slightly), then going to work. Because unfortunately my birthday has not been deemed a national holiday. Yet.