Graduation Post!!

I did it! I FINALLY graduated!!

I Have to admit, graduation, for me, was one of the best days of my life (with events like my wedding day and the day we welcomed our first born into our family topping it only)!! I don't even care that I was announced as Jonathan M. Barrett, because it doesn't change the fact that this long journey has finally come to an end!

Now for a little explanation...Why DID it take me 10 years to complete a degree in Elementary Education??? Here's the quick bulleted list of my 10 year journey.

• I spent two years at the college of Southern Idaho majoring in Deaf Studies with the plan to become an interpreter and, some day, a deaf educator. (Little did I know, the credits I earned here would not help me out when I enrolled at ISU. I would have to start all over again!)
• Events happened, decisions were made, I left to serve a mission in Virginia!
• 18 months later, I returned home. I had no stinking idea of what I wanted to do or become at this point. So I took some time to work, travel, and learn what direction I really wanted my life to take at this point.
• More decisions were made, some very hard, some very easy, and almost 18 months after I returned from my mission, I enrolled at ISU with speech pathology as my selected major.
• After a year of intro classes and anatomy and physiology, I decided I wasn't as excited about this future as I thought I was.
• Once again, I had no idea were to go from here. I revisited my desire to be a deaf educator. Enrolled in some elementary and special ed classes and fell in love with them!!
• Met the man of my dreams when I least expected it!! Finally decided I couldn't live out my dreams without Deryk by my side--a decision that would change all other decisions I had made in the past and would make in the future!
• Gracie soon entered the picture and I knew I wouldn't be happy if I returned to school a week after she was born, I took a semester off. This led to almost a year of lost time because of the class scheduling at ISU.
• A semester later, I went back, jumped through the remaining hoops. Had an awesome experience in doing so, and enjoyed student teaching more than I ever thought I would.
• AND FINALLY, the end came!!

I look back and think about all the time that has passed, and I don't regret for a minute the decisions I've made!! Each experience I had along the way made me a better woman, more secure in the path I finally chose. It may have taken longer for me to get here than the average person, but I feel so triumphant!

That's me on the edge with the white shoes. Just as we had marched in...Oh the anticipation and joy!!! Pomp and Circumstance always chokes me up a little, but on this day, I'll admit proudly...I shed joyful tears of relief!!

No longer a student and a mother!! Now I can focus on being JUST a mommy for a few months!! Poor Gracie, I 'm glad she is the only one of my children who will have to deal with the stressful student mode I go into. Luckily she's to young to remember her crazy student mother, just hope I didn't cause any lasting damage putting her through it!
This is my friend Bethani, isn't she a cutie?! She is due just a few days after me. It's fun to sport the pregnancy look with someone else! Side note, her husband Chris graduated too, so she was pretty relieved that she no longer has to be a student family...I think that will be a pretty amazing day for this family as well! I look forward to it! Until then, I'll support my amazing husband in his educational career, in hopes that I will be just as awesome a support as he was for me!! Thanks Deryk for getting me here, I couldn't have done it without you!! Also, thanks to my family, Mom and Dad, and sisters who were there every step of the way--free baby sitting, free housing and food, car care, support, and the use of my nieces and nephews toys and books which were used in the creation of many lesson plans! I have an awesome family!! Thanks for your support!!