I guess the biggest news is that I am officially and finally graduating on Saturday. Five long years of architecture school later. Five years that contained a whole mix of sleepless nights, too much coffee, laughter with friends, crying with friends, crying alone in the shower, 3 trips abroad, my first ‘C’ in a class, going camping and hiking, living in the dorms, moving out of the dorms, signing my first lease, eating way too many gummy bears, working in a dining hall, moving in an out of studio ten times, working in an architecture office, walking with a friend through a cancer diagnosis, doubting the goodness of God, driving 12 hours straight home from Florida, throwing up from too many drinks, getting a smart phone, crying for weeks when my parents said they were getting divorced, being scared by the shooting of the police officer here at Virginia Tech, watching a friend struggle with the repercussions of being raped, obsessing about my weight, battling depression, seeing my first counselor, getting married, honeymooning in CT, playing pool with my classmates, the unintentional ending of a friendship, dropping a Harry Potter class because I couldn’t keep up with the reading, creating an architecture thesis, doubting the existence of God, fearing the loss of my friends, spiraling into an isolated despair, ending up in the hospital, seeing a second counselor, learning to throw pottery, babysitting for so many adorable children, starting an etsy shop, doing yoga, learning to cook, grieving the loss of my mother-in-law…
Needless to say it’s been a heck of a journey. At the start of this post I was about to brush off graduation, because it’s been feeling pretty insignificant. Most of my friends did normal majors and graduated in four years (a.k.a. last spring) so in some ways it feels like I already graduated. But I guess this is a bigger deal than I have been making it out to be. Because college has been such a life-changing time in my life. I have grown, seen, learned, and experienced quite a bit. Sometimes it feels like too much. But on the good days I can see how it all seems to be weaving together, how it seems to (hopefully) be making me into someone more resilient, more empathetic, more understanding of what really matters in life.
(And on that note, I’m going to end this post because I am going to make dinner for my wonderful husband who will be home from lab soon. However, these two videos are short but (I think) very insightful. They kind of sum up some of the things I have come to realize more fully throughout college, and especially in my thesis.)
(love the quote “big egos have little ears”)
abstract relations vi 