Grad School Graduation

Friday was my third graduation ceremony. I'm happy to report that I managed not to fall or trip or anything else awkward and embarrassing during my two minutes of fame. Here's a picture of me with the two TESOL profs, Dr. Seaman (whom I'm passing) and Dr. Pierson (whom I'm about to hug). There were only about 45 graduates (it was only for the grad school), which was good because the chair of each department gave a little 60-second blurb about each of his or her graduates, so it was plenty long anyway. Fortuantely the profs were mostly kind and didn't say embarrassing things like, "Leslie has really made BIG IMPROVEMENTS since she came to Wheaton!" or "We really hope that Leslie manages to find a job in her field after she graduates..."

I'm really not finished with school until this Tuesday night; that's when my final final (hopefully of all time) will be over, so the graduation thing was a little anti-climactic. But it was still special because my dad, his wife, my sister, and brother-in-law all made the big hike north to watch me on my big day! Here we are, pretending to be pilgrims and puritans, though we are neither.

In other news, Friday marked my last day of work as a cleaning tech with Missy's Maid Service. That job has been an answer to prayer and a real blessing during my time at Wheaton. I am not, however, sad to hand in my cleaning supplies. :) Tuesday will be my last day monitoring recess at the local grammar school. Sigh! The end of my known employment! Yay! Boo! If I show up on your doorstep begging any time soon, you will know that my full-time employment search is not going well. I'm looking for something temporary from January through May. Then hopefully I'll move back to Ohio and prepare to move to Ecuador and teach ESL at Alliance Academy. Of course I haven't been offered a position yet, but I'm still operating at this point as though I had.

Though I would love to write more, my bed is calling me. I think that a Sunday afternoon nap is critical. I'd hate to miss that...