One door is closing, another one is opening.

Life has been nuts lately. I feel like I am a broken record because I've been saying that A LOT! But for reals, it has been busy, but good busy :)

For starters, my graduate school career is coming to a close. I walked last Saturday. Check me out:

My awesome hood....

Graduation was fun. Students are all alphabetized (SIDENOTE: so weird to have a different last name this time around! I almost forgot until the reader called my name and I was like, "Oh snap! He got my name right....well duh, because it is Gillespie not Brustuen and if you can't say Gillespie right, then you have a whole other problem!" and like my undergrad degree, I got lucky and sat by some cool peeps. Only downside to getting a master's is that you sit for a loooooooooong time and watch hundreds of kids walk up to the stage, get their photo taken, shake Stabes hand and then head back. Stabes, that's our new President. Great speaker. Pretty decent guy. I brought my phone to the ceremony. I was on Facebook, Pinterest, email, text...whatever you can think. My grad regalia (fancy word for grad gown that  looks like it is from Hogwarts) had super crazy sleeves that had pouches where I could put things if I wanted. They are not just for looks ;)  Silly me forgot my snacks, but I could put a water bottle, chapstick and my phone there. Heck, I could have put a small animal there if I wanted :)

It was a great time and I had a ton of fun having family and friends in town!

We had a get together back at our place and more friends came over to celebrate my "graduation." Ya....about those parenthesis...

My plan was to defend my thesis on May 1st and I would officially be DONE DONE DONE on May 17th. The week before I had the realization that I was not going to make the May 1st deadline. This made me sad at first, like I failed. I felt defeated and was on the verge of tears in my major professor's office. It was a crazy, bad day in FCS anyway, which did not help my situation. We talked about it a great deal and decided the best thing was to push my thesis back and submit for the first summer deadline, June 6th. The cool thing about it is that I don't have to pay for summer school. SAY WHAT?! That's right. There's a weird loop hole that allows grad students to submit by June 6th and if they are registered for master's thesis credits in spring, then it's free! Universities don't give anything besides pens out for free, so I was stoked. It was a sign.

Here is the title page of my thesis....

So June 4th, say a little prayer for me as I give the biggest and most important presentation of my life.

My story gets better. Trust me. Hang in there and stay with me. Of course every grad wants to actually find a job and USE their degree, right? I am definitely in that boat. I do enjoy my job, very much especially the people (with some exceptions), however, I want to work more with students and either do advising or financial services (financial aid) counseling of some sort. Well, what do you know...I played my cards right and I got a new job! I am going to be a  Student Financial Services Advisor at WSU starting June 9th.

Going back to my roots. Holla! Go Cougs! It's  definitely something different, but I get to work with students, I get to advise and counsel them about their financial aid and make sure they know what to do once they graduate. It's an exciting new adventure for me and for Will, but I am so excited to take this next step.

So there you have it. That's what nutty stuff has been going on in my life. Did you know, that I am so so so so so excited to not have to do homework ever again?! Bring on real life!