25th Birthday Festivities + Grad School Update
My birthday week has now come to an end, and it was definitely a good one! For the past four years, I’ve complained that I wanted the alcohol-filled celebration that I never had—on my 21st, I went to the bar, bought myself one drink, none of the friends I invited showed up, and I went home. In their defense, my birthday happened to be the first day of finals week (sorry to all mid-December-birthday friends, you are forever cursed with a finals-week birthday). However, last year more than made up for this uneventful 21st, as I somehow ended up on stage at a karaoke bar rapping Eminem’s Slim Shady. (Big thanks to my Disney friends who made this possible! And big apologies to my now in-laws who patiently waited outside to drive us home…).
But this year was different—heck, I’m a quarter-of-a-century old now! I’m mature, I’m wise, I’m the adultiest adult I’ve ever been. So the morning of my birthday, I scarfed down the delicious waffles made by my husband, and hurried off to work. After work, I came home and finished a presentation for my experimental methods class (of course I put it off until the last day, so I had to complete the research, put together the PowerPoint, and present it all in the same day). Austin forced me to take a break from this final so that we could go out to my favorite Thai restaurant in town—if you’re ever in Minot, ND (though I’d assume you came here by mistake), try the M.S.U. fried sushi roll from Thai Hot! Aaaaand, that was it. It was chilled out and, frankly, perfect. What can I say, I’m easy to please—a little fried food I’m good to go!
Two days after my birthday, I got the best gift of all—I completed my very last final exam of the semester! Holy heck, this was the toughest semester of my college career, but that may be because I accidentally signed up for the accelerated track, which is five classes per semester. To be honest, I thought that was the full-time track, since about five classes per semester is normal in undergrad. Turns out, full-time for grad school is about two to three classes. Whoops. Stack that with my full-time job and I’m on the fast-track to a full-blown mental breakdown. (Yes, a few breakdowns did occur, but no worries, I have survived!)
It also may have been tough because I put in more effort than ever. All throughout high school and undergrad, I knew I was bright enough to do the bare minimum and still skate by with a B-average. Starting in graduate school this past August, however, I wanted to see what I could accomplish if I truly put in 100% effort (well, by the end of the semester, it was more like 85%…). As it turns out, hard work pays off, y’all! For the first time in my life, I got straight A’s! *pats self on back*
