Graduation.....

When I was 23, I felt like like I was finally joining the world of adults.  I'd been working as an engineer for years, but I was now going to start a career.  And of course, now that the degree was out of the way I could get married to my best friend!
When I was 26, I felt like I had accomplished something really challenging, but more than that I was focused on having played the game to get two more years of experience so I would finally have the pay and the title I deserved for the work I was already doing.

Now again I graduate, a second masters at 34... days away from 35....

I hope that I have been and will be a role model for my children, even though the last 20 months had been really hard on them.  Schooling is really important and you are never too old to work hard and focus on learning something new.  Originally I'd sought the MBA as an investment in our family's desire to continue to have me be a working mom in Colorado.  It was also a way for me to fill in gaps that I thought I had to move forward with my career.  Little  did I realize how much the degree would take out of me, or how much I would have to sacrifice to get it, and how proud I'd be of the accomplishment. 

• Sitting through classes in the first trimester trying to keep food down. 
• Studying late at night, again, even though I'd been active with Xander all day and was almost too tired to keep my eyes open. 
• Sitting through classes with my pelvis out of joint. 
• Nursing 2 week old Maya in the middle of a timed final exam (at  home!). 
• Traveling with Maya in tow (and Jake too of course!) for the first 2 months, and then with bags and bags of frozen milk for months afterwards. 
• Having to listen to Xander cry and beg me to come out and play and having to say no
• Spending almost 20 months with hardly any exercise, and flat tires on my bike.
• Spending almost 20 months with my husband and my marriage coming last among my many competing priorities....

This is a degree that is not like the others... it has been a life changing event and one that allowed me to grow and see myself as a very different person than when I started.

I graduate not with the original plan to enter back into the corporate world, but with a new business venture: another big risk and another big time commitment, but one that I hope will soon allow my flexibility in my work hours in the years to come.  Fashion Forward Maternity is up and running and I'm using everything I was taught in class and more.  It would be nice to get a paycheck again though.

Thank you to my husband most of all, but also to my kids, my family, my friends.  To my mother, who set the example for me to follow, and who came all the way to MI to see me graduate.  To those that have guided my learning, and those that have journeyed with me, my EMBA16's, Thank you.