School is OVER!

I am so excited that school is over!! Of course my last set of exams had to follow suit of every other exam week I have ever had and land on the last days of exam week. I had one exam on Saturday night from 6pm till 8pm.....honestly who sets an exam at that time?? I kept checking the website to make sure I was reading it right...I even googled 1800-2000 because I swore it couldn't be 6 till 8. Then I had an exam yesterday at 2 till 4:30. What a nice feeling to walk out of the UofL and know that I had accomplished my goal! 4 years of school....is long....but short in some ways. I also ended up getting all my grades back today and it was A's all around! I am so blessed to have been able to keep it together during this semester while being pregnant and all. Even though the first little bit was rough I didn't really notice it was rough till I got into my second trimester and realized I was feeling A LOT better. One of the greatest blessings I feel from going to school is that my children will be able to have an educated mother. Some of the best skills I picked up from the UofL were not typically what I would have thought I would have walked away from University knowing. Firstly, I learned that you need to do your research!! Just because someone educated tells you something doesn't mean it is true, you need to go off and do your own research about it and find out if it actually is true. Secondly, I learned to work well with others....yeah we all know about those group projects and members who aren't pulling their weight. Well, life is like that!! So you have to learn how to positively motivate people to pull their weight, even if it means dividing the project into parts that everyone has strengths in (computer spreadsheets, speaking parts, research etc). Thirdly, you can get a University degree without being that smart. LOL I am honestly not that smart but I grew up with a bunch of girls that had parents who were really educated and pushed them to be the best they could be. My parents are very smart as well but sometimes I feel that they may lack confidence in themselves due to how people may look upon their career paths. University is not about being smart, it is about working hard! I worked my butt off to get the grades I did and I learned to work my butt off from my parents! I probably don't say this enough but my parents are so awesome!! Sometimes I look at people around me and think...wow....my parents really taught me how to be self sufficient and how to work hard for everything I have. Andrew and I are both very blessed but we definitely are not handed things like other people in the world. Whilst doing my taxes this year I realized that I have paid $40,000 in tuition fees in the past 4 years (keep in mind I switched majors and bought a lot of textbooks). I have a $5000 student loan and $4000 already saved up from that past couple months of working that is going towards that. WHEW!!! some people are in a lot more debt then that after they are done with University (my husband is also grateful he didn't have to bail me out of debt hehehe).

Anyways, I guess this post was just something that I can look back at and remember the way I was feeling after graduating. I am so grateful for Gordon B. Hinckley and the way he encouraged girls to get an education. I now have the ability to support our family if anything every happens to Andrew (I hope it never does). It also gives me the ability to go back to work after my youngest is in grade 1 so I can further increase my skills :) Well, time for bed! I gotta go to work in the morning ;)