Well, finals have come and gone. I must admit, this semester my finals schedule was easy compared to the previous two semesters when I was full-time.
For my internship, I spent time working on my final paper. It has to be 10-15 pages, and ended up at about 12.5 pages. I had plenty to write about, and found myself deleting unnecessary information in an attempt to not be too wordy! So, on Wednesday morning (Dec 10th) I handed in my internship project to my adviser. It consisted of a cover page, a two page table of each date, hours, and short summary of what I did that day, all in a neat Excel spreadsheet. I also had a list of the goals I wanted to accomplish and if I felt I had accomplished them. Then of course my paper, along with a copy of each e-mail I sent her summarizing each day of my internship.
It felt so good to pass it in! I was very proud of my final project and genuinely happy about the experience I had. I turned my project into my adviser in person, and got the chance to chat with her about my feelings about the internship. She was very pleased that I had such a positive experience. I thanked her very much-mainly because if not for her, I probably would have never tried for this internship! She had told me about it and encouraged me to check it out. I guess things just happen that way sometimes!
As for my internship, I went to their Holiday party on Thursday afternoon. We had lunch at the Fours, and did a Yankee swap. I ended up with a really nice Kahlua set--they all got a kick out of that since I was "the intern." I was sad to say goodbye, but they all said to keep in touch and that even though there are not job openings now, to keep them in mind perhaps for the future. That I will definitely do!
Lastly, I handed in my take home final for class. It consisted of four questions, and our professor wanted a 2-3 page typed response on each question. All in all, once I got cracking, it was pretty easy to write. I handed that in through e-mail on Wednesday afternoon.
I was so hesitant to hit the "send" button because once I did, I knew grad school was over. I was excited, anxious, sad, happy...a big mix of feelings. In a way, even though I knew my future plans (in a sense) I thought "What now?" and felt a little loss of identity because I have been going to school for SO long. I guess now it's time to do something else!
Good news: I got my grades over the past few days. I got an A in my internship! I was very happy and felt that my paper (which was on Bureaucracy in the Federal Government) must have been good! But the real pleasant surprise was my A in my class! I expected a B+ or A-, but got an A! I guess my final was good! So, needless to say, I was very happy with my grades. That leaves me with a 4.0 this semester--didn't expect that! The reason it is even more exciting to me is that I had a 4.0 last semester, and I think with those two high GPAs, I will graduate with some type of distinction. That's very exciting to me!! :)
So, that's my update on finishing up graduate school. Ah, this journey has gone by quickly. But anyways, I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet. I feel that I'll write one more entry summarizing up the whole experience and let you know about my future plans.
So for one more time... until next time...
