Celebrations

Tis done. After two and a half years, 20 classes, over a hundred papers and team presentations, a practicum, a thesis (that literally nearly killed me)I have successfully completed graduate school and now can put MSN after my name. This is huge for me, really huge. I have dreamed since my 20's of going to graduate school, did not have the courage to do it until I was 40 and now at 43 I am done. I loved it, really loved it, did not love the pressure and chaos it created in my life but did love being a student and the learning experience. However, it took over my life completely, when I wasnt doing homework or preparing for the next assignment I was always thinking about school and now not to have that is going to be a little weird. However, it will be nice to get my life back and focus on family and be able to do Christmas without juggling a homework deadline. It will be nice to never have to worry about going away for a weekend because I had too much work to do and I could never be more than one day away from my laptop. I have been enriched in so many ways by the experience, first the sense of accomplishment is huge but I also learned so much about nursing theory, evidence based practice, cultural competency and how to juggle life, school, family , work (sometimes not well) We survived. I think everyone in our house has a big sigh of relief. I have been celebrating every night this week with just a teeny weeny glass of champagne - I deserve it.

Other celebration is Joe and Katie came home last night for Thanksgiving, they got a little lost on the way home and as a result did not get in until around 1am, we all stayed up to greet them (yawn) When i said "kids bring me home your laundry" they took me at my word....it will take me days, good job homework is over. So sooooo good to see them both. The family is complete again. I have not been this excited for Thanksgiving for years, we are going to have a wonderful week.