Just take a look at all those toothbrushes (Tom's cousins)

I'm writing to you from my couch--a new couch--and in a new place, too. The last couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy and I've spent a disgusting amount of time in the car, driving the I-5 corridor from Duvall to Bellingham, and once to Olympia even. I went to graduations and quit my job and attended family reunions and birthday parties and baseball games and moved out of my little house for good and started a new job. Thank goodness for Tom, who has been a huge help all along the way, hauling my stuff and tolerating my bossy and grouchy behavior. Now we're moved into our cozy little home just outside of Duvall, and I am definitely dreading the thought of another move any time soon. If there's one thing I know for sure right now, it's that I have way too much crap. 

It was pretty sad to say goodbye to my little Bellingham home, though it had gradually lost some of its homey-ness over the year. Still, it was hard to leave the keys under the garden statue and drive away. 1415 was in a great neighborhood, and I loved it for its funky little quirks like how the front door was impossible to open and the roof was infested with squirrels. Also, the raised bed I built last summer and planted full of random stuff is just starting to flourish, the poppies just about to burst open any day, and I was sad to leave that behind. I hope the new girls will tend my garden at least a little bit, though I tend to think they might not. 

Friday we'll be jetting off to Wisconsin, quickly followed by eight days in New Hampshire...but I'll try to be diligent about posting and making myself write more. It's hard to be productive when you have very little time to yourself, I've found, but there's been some poetry rumbling around in my head so we'll see if I can get it out and onto the blog sometime soon. 

Some favorites...

I thought I'd post a few of my favorite pictures from graduation. It was, after all, a momentous occasion. Feel confident that more might appear here later.

Also, it is important to note that all of my final grades were posted today and I've passed (I was sweating it out a bit for that biology grade...I'm so thankful to never think about mitosis vs. meiosis ever again...) and I can feel confident in my freedom! Huzzah!

And then it was over.

It's official. I am finally a college graduate. After an incredibly long, stressful four years week of trying hard to care about biology facts and due dates, it is all over. Abruptly, I might add.

I'd spent a good deal of time anticipating an entirely climactic conclusion that included a lot of smiling, hugging, and perhaps even a few tears as I parted ways with my friends and professors. I imagined hours of picture-taking, diplomas held high, as our enormous and overpriced black polyester bathrobes fluttered in the spring breeze. But the ceremony came and went without much participation on my part, I saw some faces for perhaps the last time, and then, just like that, we drove off to dinner and college was over.

Now I'm feeling a mix of relief and unease, as I move out of this stage of life and into a new, much more uncertain one. Three cheers for no more homework, or GPAs, or shoulder problems caused by carting around enormous textbooks...but I'll miss the familiar faces, the professors I've come to really respect and enjoy, and my favorite computer lab in Haggard Hall. No doubt that my college years have been some difficult ones, a period that has encompassed my most major downs and deepest struggles. But I feel like I've concluded with some wonderful highs, and not only do I feel accomplished in my studies, but I am content with who I've turned out to be as well. Of course there is always room for improvement and learning new things, but I don't have any reservations when declaring myself happy. And that feels good.

The next week-and-a-half-ish has already been resigned to packing, working, and whole-heartedly attempting to eat at all of my favorite places in Bellingham before I leave on the 19th. Then it's off to Wisconsin and New Hampshire for some quality family time before being spit back out into real life again, to find a job, make a plan, and generally get my shit together. 

Cross your fingers for me!