Tunneling Out With a Spoon

As of today, I have 13 more days left here in Chicago. Some big changes have taken place, and I'm very excited about them! Everything has been chaotic, and I've waited for things to settle into place before writing about them. Now that they have, I'm so excited to share my news! There's a lot, so buckle up...

• This coming Friday my BFF is coming to visit. Aside from a brief 1-hour visit over Thanksgiving, I haven't seen her since I left Oklahoma, and we haven't had one-on-one BFF time together in years. I'm super jazzed. I expect many nights of wine, old movies ("She's the Man", anyone?) and lots of talking and laughing are in our future.

• I recently received formal approval of my Master's thesis for the Sociology department, and once I complete my last two classes (next week) I will officially earn my Master's degree in Sociology! Graduation is May 9, and my family and Eric are all flying up to celebrate with me. We already have some fun things planned. After the ceremony everyone is going to come back to my apartment (350 square feet of celebration!) for some snacks and drinks. Then we'll head out to dinner later that night. My family will be here for a few days, and since this is one of the very few times they'll ever have a reason to be in Chicago, we're going to make the most of it by visiting some museums and doing a boat tour of the city. After being so far away for 2 years, only seeing my family 5 or 6 times in a 12-month period, I'm very excited that we'll get to spend some time together. 

• I also recently accepted a formal job offer from Miss Helen's Private School in Tulsa. I'm going to be teaching preschool full-time, starting in June. Thanks to a dear friend who told me about the opening, I was able to wrangle myself an interview and use my charming face and sparkling personality to get my foot in the door for my ultimate career goal of being a teacher. For a little over a year now, I've realized that what I really want to spend my life doing is educating others, and even more, I want to inspire others to love learning the way that I do. Learning can open so many doors. It's not just about a good job and a good salary later on in life, but education can also be the stepping stone to pursuing your dreams. (An excellent example is the love of my life, Eric, who was able to pursue his dream of flying airplanes through OU's aviation program.) I can't wait to start working and spending my time doing what I love, near the people I love. Being in Tulsa means being close to friends and family, surrounded by wide open spaces! I can't begin to tell you how much I have missed having big fields, tall trees, and wide open blue skies (and the occasional thunderstorm)-- it's going to be so good for my soul to be back in that environment. 

These past 2 years in Chicago have been wonderful in their own way. I received a terrific education in the graduate program, and having the opportunity to get this degree while also not having to pay for it has been a gift for which I will be grateful forever. I learned that I am capable of taking care of myself, no matter what-- I moved across the country and built a life all by myself. There's something extremely satisfying and reassuring in knowing that I am capable of independence, although it's going to be nice to move back to where I have a support system so I won't have to do it all by myself. And I got the opportunity to see what this kind of life would be like. When I graduated college I didn't really know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. Now that I've had a chance to see what's out there, I feel like I can embrace these life changes completely, without fearing that I'm missing out on something else.

I have found my way to a new job in a familiar place, and I'm so thrilled to be able to start this new phase of my life. There are few things quite so satisfying as the moment where everything finally comes together. Let me tell you, I'm drinking that moment in.