I am a MASTER!!

Of ACCOUNTING! I finally DID IT! Or so I hope, as long as my grades come out A-OK this week! Haha which really shouldn't be a problem! The feeling is very surreal; I still can't believe I'm done with school. FOREVER. FOR-EV-ER. As in I'm not going back to campus in the spring for more classes. It still hasn't hit me. And that may be a good thing because I tend to be very sentimental, especially when it comes to big life-changing events and somehow I have managed to not shed a single tear as of yet, even through my hooding ceremony and saying good-bye to my good friend, Allison, who helped me get through this past year of hell school (pardon my french). Allison and I had a class together as undergrads our last semester but never really knew each other. It wasn't until we had orientation together for the MAcc (Master of Accounting) program that we really truly met. After that, we've had nearly every class together, since we were both "Taxation" majors within the MAcc program, and have been pretty much joined at the hip on campus. We have shared some of the most stressful times together over the past year and some good ones too! I'm not sure how I would have made it through the past year without her and she sure has made my grad school experience very memorable! So thank you, Allison, again, for being so awesome!!

Well, Friday was a rush! I had my last final exam EVER from 10am-12pm, which didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped. But what made my afternoon was walking into my TA office and seeing and reading a note from another TA, congratulating me and thanking me for helping out all the new TAs throughout the semester! It was soooo sweet and ALMOST made me cry! I sure am gonna miss these guys:

These are the people I have probably spent most of my time with throughout the semester, in the room I spent a most of my time - 329 RBB - the TA office!

After our exam, Allison and I had to take care of a couple last minute things for graduation. Apparently, our friend, Scott, just happened to come across something online last week that said all graduates had to complete a "Program of Study" 2 weeks before graduation. Good thing we foung out about it 4 days before graduation! None of us had ever heard about it nor got an email from the graduate office saying anything remotely related to that. Well, Scott got the details from the graduate office and since Allison and I had a final late Tuesday night, we didn't go by the graduate office until Wednesday to get the forms. Just our luck, the lady in charge was out of the office. So we went to go talk to the dean of our program who basically told us its a form we just had to bring to him to sign and it is supposed to give us a chance to discuss our feelings about the program and what we liked and what we felt could be better, blah blah blah (meanwhile, he's rolling his eyes because he knows how much of a pain in the butt it is rather than useful). So he said he would be around Friday afternoon to sign the forms, since Allison and I wouldn't be on campus on Thursday to take care of it. Well then Thursday we all finally got an email from the graduate office about the "Program of Study" and what we needed to do. Way to be on top of things grad office! So back to my story, so Friday, after our LAST final (yay!) we go to the grad office to pick up our "program of study" forms and they won't let me have mine because I haven't completed the exit interview for our program. Are you kidding me? Like, I knew I had to do an exit interview, and I did one. Only apparently I had to do two. One for the financial aid office and then another for my program. Well, the 2nd one I had no clue about or where to find out more info about it or even where to go to do it. Way to drop the ball again, grad office! So I had to go up to my TA office to use the computer to complete my exit interview before I could get my form - argh! Thank goodness the exit interview only took me like 10 minutes to complete and gave me an opportunity to write comments about what needed to be improved - so needless to say, the grad office got a piece of my mind that day! Well, then I went back down to the grad office, picked up my "Program of Study", which basically listed all the classes I've taken over the past year and my grades and showed that I met my program requirements for my degree and then Allison and I went back upstairs to Dr. Gerard's office (our dean) to get it signed. Well, we knocked and knocked and no one answered. So then we decided to go find the location of our hooding ceremony and then come back, in hopes that he would be there. So we walked over to the school of music, found the Opperman Music Hall and walked back to the College of Business and back upstairs to Dr. Gerard's office. And once again, we knocked and knocked and no one answered. By this time, I was pretty fed up with the grad office and so was Allison so we just decided to go downstairs and tell the office that we tried but had no luck. And we did and they said "oh well, if he needs to contact you about anything, he'll call you" and then they told us congratulations and that was it! All that for nothing! It seriously was the biggest waste of time and so pointless for us to pick up this form from their office, take it upstairs to another office to get signed, and bring it back to their office. I wished I had never even wasted my time in the first place!

After my grad office debacle, I had a few hours until my hooding ceremony, so I decided to make a quick dash to the mall to just SEE if there was anything there reasonably priced that would be perfect to wear for my ceremony. As soon as I got to the mall, I knew it was a bad idea. It was PACKED. I didn't even dare venture into the parking garage because the lot out front of Dillard's and Ann Taylor Loft was full almost to the very last rows out by the entry/exit! And I don't know why I did it, but I parked anyways and booked it inside to do a very speedy run-through of the major stores. And to no avail, I found nada. I even considered maybe splurging and buying the way out of my price range dress from Banana Republic that I'm in love with since they gave me a coupon for 25% off and I still had a gift card left over from my birthday but of course they didn't have my size in the color I wanted. Must have been a sign! Then I decided to run over to Shoe Station to check out the gray heels I spotted a couple weeks back because I had one dress in mind to wear from my closet but it matched brown better than black but gray would have paired nicely with it and still have matched my black graduation gown. Well, of course I get there and they are no where to be found! Another sign I suppose. Haha. So then I rush to my apartment and get ready as fast as I can since I'm supposed to meet my family on campus at 4:30 to take pics before my ceremony began.

Then of course, I'm 10 minutes late. And there's a line at Ruby Diamond to take pics. Here are some pics we took while waiting in line:

Luckily, the whole 'graduates need to be at Opperman for the ceremony by 5pm' was a waste of time since all they had us do was wait around and so I was 15 minutes late to that. Once I got there, I met up with Scott and Allison and we were the only 3 MAcc graduates that were there to be hooded (I think there may have been 10 of us total graduating this semester but the hooding ceremony is optional). And then the nerves set in. First, Dr. Gerard comes to congratulate us and let us know he'll be hooding us and we better hand him our hoods right or else he'll be putting them on wrong. Then this lead to us having a 15 minute discussion about the proper way to hand him our hood, including demonstrations and practice runs. Haha! Scary to think we all have Master's degrees now, huh?! Well, then I excuse myself to use the ladies room and do some last minute primping in the mirror and low and behold when I return I find out I am first in line. Of everyone. To walk and be hooded. Not just the MAcc students, but E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. And I'm not good in front of audiences. I tend to get nervous and fidget a lot. And I especially don't like to be first; second is ok. At least then I can watch and copy whoever goes first to know what I'm supposed to do. And with a last name that starts with "D", this has never been an issue for me. But not this time! So then we go downstairs and one of the ladies from the grad office tries to give me instructions about when I stand, sit, give my hood, etc. and of course, as soon as I walk out all I can concentrate on is smiling and not falling and pretty much forget everything she says as soon as I'm standing up on stage. Thank goodness Allison and Scott were right there with me and paid attention! Here is proof of me needing some guidance:

Overall, the hooding ceremony didn't last too long. I think it was about an hour total. I enjoyed all the speakers - especially the professor who started by saying during his new job orientation at FSU he was told by another professor that their job is to make "students as uncomfortable as possible." Then he went on to say how when you're uncomfortable, you are alert and will do anything to regain a state of comfort and you perform your best. Overall, it was a very nice ceremony and I am so happy my loving family and fiance could be there to share it with me! After the ceremony, we hung out and enjoyed the refreshments. My mom met Dr. Gerard and he talked to Allison and I for a few minutes. Then Allison and I, of course, celebrated with a glass of champagne! After doing some mingling, my family made their way to Macaroni Grill to continue the celebration! We were met there by my mom's best friend and her husband, Ms. Kathy and Mr. Jim, who have always been like a second set of parents to me and made the drive all the way down from Thomasville just to celebrate with me :) Here is Ashley and I with Ms. Kathy:

Love you ladies!

Dinner was deee-lish and the entertainment of my 4-year-old cousin, John Thomas, "cycling " (as my grandma calls it) was funnier than it should have been. Clearly he's never been told not to play with his food:

Yes, that is a cherry tomato on his nose! Which I think he proceeded to feed to Joseph... haha!

After dinner, Ashley, Nate, Joseph, and I went out to do some more celebrating. We went to Krewe de Gras for some after dinner drinks and ended up spending some time with Jamie, a friend of Ashley's, who also bartends at Krewe de Gras. When Jamie graduated from FSU a couple of years ago, we celebrated with her and I may or may not have celebrated like it was my own graduation that night ;) Needless to say, Irish car bombs and different flavored martinis don't mix well and a trash can may or may not have been involved. So, after Jamie made me her newest concoction - a martini called "Christmas is your mouth" - she thought it would be hilarious to bring over a trash can for old times sake. Thanks Jamie and Ash, I guess I'll never live that one down! Since I only got maybe a total of 3 hours of sleep the night before, (on top of not sleeping much the entire week) my little celebration at the bar didn't last past 11:30pm! And let me just say that it was glorious, absolutely GLORIOUS being able to NOT set an alarm for the next day and be able to sleep in 'til my little heart's content, which I did, until 11:00am!!! And that is NOT normal for me, nor do I even remember the last time I did something of that nature! Feel free to be jealous :) And next on my to-do list since school is O-V-E-R: absolutely nothing and I can't wait :)