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9 1/2 Years In The Making

9 1/2 Years In The Making

by Nicole on December 22, 2010

This past weekend the hubs and I flew to St. Pete, FL to attend a wedding and my graduation down in Gainesville. The weekend went by incredibly fast, and the realization that I finally have my masters is finally sinking in.

Thinking about it, this has been a long time coming. My undergrad took me 5 years to complete since I changed my major 4 times. I’m STILL interested in everything. :) Those times were so hard. I moved out on my own only to become broke and have to move back in with my mom several times. My last two years of undergrad, I realized that I wanted to go to grad school someday, and I needed to make school more of a priority. I changed jobs to only work 10-15 hours a week, sucked it up and moved in with my mom one last time (this sucked not because my mom is a horrible person to live with, but I had rules that I had to follow if I lived with her), and had to get really creative with how I spent my money. I think my last year of my undergrad I made around $3,200. I was broke! haha.

Thinking back, it only made me stronger. I appreciate things so much more since going through that. Once I graduated, I moved to Tucson to be with my boyfriend, now husband, and worked for a while to pay off some debt. That only lasted for a year and a half before having to move to Europe where I spent 2 1/2 incredible years traveling everywhere.

While in Europe I didn’t want to just sit at home idly waiting for my next traveling adventure so I drove up to Frankfurt where I took my GRE (scary as hell driving in our Chevy Avalanche, also where I got my first European parking ticket, hehe). I thought my time in Europe would be the perfect time to pursue my masters through the University of Florida since I really couldn’t find a job in my career field there.

I learned so much, played hard, and worked hard during my time getting my masters. At times, I had to say no parties, get-togethers, and traveling weekends with friends. I was focused.

My last semester consisted of moving back to the states, continued volunteering, and a full school schedule. The hubs and I definitely had to cut back on a few things since I didn’t work during my grad school years, but that gave me the ability to put school first, volunteer, travel, and still be able to spend a little bit of time together. We shared a car for 4 years, and we STILL have hardly any furniture (if you didn’t count our plaid 30 year old couch and 1990 television that we just replaced). Money for traveling and racing is much more important! ;)

I’m glad it is finally done, and now I can get out there and make some money! Putting the money aside though, pursuing my masters has only made my hunger for knowledge more, which I think is a good thing. ;)

Here are some pics with the fam from the weekend…

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I’m in the gray pants (they actually look white) on the very left on the stage.
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We actually took more, but I’m still waiting on some pics from some family members.

And, we didn’t take any pics at the wedding we went to on Sunday except for these…

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I swear, the hubs and I have a fun time wherever we go. ;) Thanks babe, for supporting me and my dreams!!!

I’m ready and excited for the next chapter in my life to begin! ;)

Have you ever worked so hard (or are you in the process of working towards) for something that you wanted so badly?

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