I'm a College Graduate

When I graduated high school in 1988, I went directly to college. A year and a half later, I ran out of money and, unwilling to take out student loans, came home and got a job. I figured I'd finish up school at the community college - so I picked up a few classes over the following couple years. That didn't last long, so I dropped out of college again. About 8 years ago I decided to finish my college degree and went back to school again, but it was just too difficult to manage a new job and school at that time, so I dropped out again.

Shortly after having WLS in 2008, I set the goal for myself to get a college degree for real this time. I had the motivation of needing a degree to qualify for a job promotion I wanted. So over the past 2.5 years I've  gone to school with the determination that this time I would finish and get the degree that has eluded me for the past 23 years.

I did it! I'm a College Graduate!

This past week was the end of the final semester before graduating with an Associate's Degree in Graphic Communication. It's still hard for me to believe that I have achieved this amazing task and I no longer have to say that I'm a "college drop out." I'm pretty frickin' proud of myself.

This isn't the end though. I'm going to take the fall semester off and recover from a way-too-busy summer term and then start back up in the winter to begin working on my Bachelor's degree.

And that career move is right around the corner too. The graphic artist at work is counting down the days until his retirement and I'm looking forward to submitting my (beautifully designed) resume to the boss for consideration. But that's not all. I have met three amazing designers through school and we are embarking on an adventure to start a new graphic design business. We call ourselves Four Effect. (No, our website isn't designed yet, but that's because we have so many client projects coming at us, that we haven't had time to do our own identity - but it'll be in place soon!). 

I'm thrilled with where my life is going and I owe it all to my determination to achieve the goals I've set before me. If you look back at the goal list I created for myself at the beginning of this year (2011 Goals) you'll see that I'm actually kicking some butt! (Well, let's just ignore #4 and #6 for now.) 

Before you ask (because I know you will!) -- the book is coming! In fact, that is NEXT on the to-do list. It's so close I can actually smell the fresh-from-the-printer aroma and I'm so excited for you to read it. So please bare with me a little while long and please have just a little bit more patience... the wait will be worth it. I promise!

One more thing.

You know I am a big advocate of rewarding yourself for achieving goals. (There's even a list of reward ideas!) So yesterday the very first thing I did with a spare moment, was to head to the jewelry store and buy a new charm for my Pandora bracelet. Yep, it's the graduation cap! Cool, huh?

Thanks for all your patience with me as I had to step away from the blog for a little while as I focused on finishing this chapter in my life. I am back and have more time to spend with you again.

~Pam