Well, I was going to write this post before I left for Russia, but I kept putting it off with the idea that I was busy and didn’t have time. However, I think that I was more or less trying to avoid this post because it would mean the end.
I try to act like endings aren’t such a big deal and that it doesn’t mean that much to me, but I’m always proven wrong. When I had graduated from Prendie, I was completely okay with it and during the entire ceremony I didn’t cry, but was filled with ecstatic joy. My family took me out for lunch afterwards and I was just so happy and proud of myself and figured high school wasn’t that big of a deal. My mom and I drove home together from the restaurant and I just began hysterically crying and my mom sat with me for almost two hours in the car outside of my house while I cried about the end of the 4 greatest years of my life, the fact that I was leaving for another country in two months, and for the fear that I would lose all of my friends and the great memories we had in those horrific peter-pan collars and maroon tights. But as usual, I was wrong, I still keep in contact with most of my friends and we still laugh, and sometimes cry about those amazing times.
So when the opportunity presented itself to study abroad in Russia this summer again, I didn’t hesitate. Hey, so I’m not walking? Who cares? I’ll be where I want to be, doing what I’ve learned to love over the past 3 years at Neumann. But during the first week of classes here in Russia and the constant uploading of photos from my friends on Facebook in their cap and gowns and of their ceremonies, I’ve grown sentimental. Now that I’ve become an almost emotional train-wreck due to my not walking, my suitemates and various friends I’ve made here so far are having an impromptu graduation celebration for me tomorrow evening during Eurovision, so I’m pretty excited. I’ve sworn to myself that I will walk when I graduate with my masters, because my mom and dad deserve that for everything they’ve done for me.
As for Neumann, I’m excited and sad to leave. They were very welcoming when I first transferred and have been secretly in love with the small close knit campus. I’ve made many new friends, all of whom will go so far in their career. They are amazing people with wonderful ideas on how to change the world or to even change something as simple as a local law. I can’t wait to see what they do and to support them in their decisions. They have also been very supportive of my decision to continue my Russian studies, occasionally poking fun at my choice, but only out of love. Anyway, I couldn’t thank them enough.
My professors have always also been entirely helpful, and I have no idea where I’d be today without any of their support and encouragement. Neumann is extremely lucky to have professors such as Dr. Bryce Johnson, Lawrence Puchalski, Dr. Geoff Karabin and various others such as Linda Miller who are fully dedicated to their students success. I can not thank them enough for all of their help.
So although I begin my new exciting adventure at Duke for a Masters in Slavic and East Eurasian Studies this fall, I am very thankful and will never forget my first registration meeting where Larry Puchalski told me: “You should take a foreign language, probably Russian, you’d like the teacher.” The rest is history.
Thank you faculty, staff and administration of Neumann University for everything!!