An Awfully Big Adventure : 2013

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Finally... I'm a Graduate!

After many long years of working full time and attending university and one year of being a full time student (thanks to my sweet husband) I finally have a degree!

When I was 17, I came to Houston for the first time to attend UofH for orientation. I stayed in the dorm, and hated it so much that I violated curfew and called a friend to come get me! A few months later, I drove from my parents' home in southern California to Houston, with one MAJOR bump along the way. My poor old car broke down in El Paso. Since I had to be in Houston that weekend, I left my car full of everything I owned in El Paso, rented a car, and drove the rest of the way to Houston (after a kind mechanic agreed to fix my car and had his son drive me to a rental car office and convinced the rental car lady to stay open late so that I could get a car). School started that Monday and the following weekend I drove back to El Paso in the rental, picked up my repaired car and belongings, and started my drive back to Houston. Little did I know, that one of the friends I had convinced to come with me to El Paso was in the U.S. illegally (over staying a visitor's visa) and that when we passed through the boarder patrol check point, this friend started screaming, "Oh my God, I'm going to jail, I'm going to go to jail!", and hid under a blanket on the floor of the back seat. I had no idea what was going on, but shortly after passing the boarder patrol check point (around 3:00 AM) I spotted flashing lights quickly pulling up behind me... Lucky for us all, it was only because we were speeding!

After finally reaching Houston, and vowing to never ride in the car with that crazy friend again, I set out to find a roommate. I found a nice young lady and moved in with her. It turns out she had a few problems, and after a few too many late night calls to come pick her up, and one crazy night that involved a call from jail and a call from her lawyer, I decided this was not going to work. Fortunately for me, I was offered an amazing job opportunity in North Carolina so I quickly packed up my things and drove the rest of the way across country. I flew back to Houston to take my finals and then left for two years. After two years learning about the "real world" living in NC (and traveling every few weeks), I decided to move back to Houston and continue studying.

Back in Houston I quickly found a job and met so many amazing girls. I have such great friends, to this day, that I met in those first few months back in Houston. Unfortunately, I did not re-enroll at University right away. After all, school was so expensive and I wasn't sure how long I would stay in Houston. A few years later I decided I better finish my degree... so I re-enrolled and along with working around 45-50 hours each week, I attended classes. 6 short years later, with too many crazy stories to tell here, and as a happy house wife, I finally heard my name called as I walked across the stage and graduated with honors. I always knew I would graduate, but I never knew it would take this long, that it would be this hard, or that I would be graduating a married woman.

If I have learned anything while attending University, it is that I know that I don't know much about anything, and neither does anyone else (Thanks to Curtis, my Logic Professor). I have also learned that kindness and compassion will change lives in a way that nothing else can. Most importantly, I have learned that there is hope for humanity; for we are far better creatures than we give ourselves credit for.

Life is an awfully big adventure...

The empty stage waiting for our walk...

Here we come...

And here come the Psych grads

Here I come

One of the longest waits of my life

Checking to make sure he's still there...

My awesome cap

OMG... He just called my name!

A close up... do I see California?!?!

Finally!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Right Through the Very Heart Of It, New York, New York!

As I type this, I am sitting at home with the fire on listening to the *N'Sync Christmas Album. Yes, Justin Timberlake, Christmas is all around. Mohammad and I were recently in New York for Thanksgiving and a short vacation. I had been to NYC before for work and airport layovers (does that even count?), but Mohammad had been to NYC a few times before. Nonetheless, we decided to see all the major touristy sites. As the Texas say, Boy Howdy!, did we do some walkin'. My feet were so sore! One night I was so exhausted that I literally made Mohammad take my shoes off for me.

We arrived on Thanksgiving Day and took a THREE HOUR train ride out to Long Island to visit our sweet friends and their adorable twin daughters. We were lucky enough to have awesome hosts who spent all day making a Thanksgiving feast for us. The next day we traveled back into the city (much shorter commute this time) to our hotel. I definitely recommend the Grand Hyatt Grand Central. We had a great room, excellent service, and the location cannot be beat. We are close enough to walk everywhere (though we did take the subway to the Ellis Island Ferry stop).

Now that we're back home, I have one week of finals, graduation week, and then we leave again for a month! I am so ready for graduation! (Graduation is Dec 20th at 9am CST, you can watch online by clicking here)