{from newbie to Au.D.}

Before I jump head first into my plans for this post, I just wanted to say that I am feeling much better today after yesterday's vent/woe is me whiny post. I knew I just needed to get it out and let go of it and move on. The words and feelings had been floating around in my head for the entire week and I just couldn't get myself to sit down and get all of the ickiness negative feelings out of my head so I could let the positive ones in. Today is about positivity and moving forward. Don't take my last post in the wrong way... I am more than grateful for the people and things in my life and know how completely I am blessed with my family and everything else. Just sometimes the negative thoughts creep in and I let them get to me. I can't be perfect all of the time. Actually, I'm never perfect and don't pretend to be. I have many more faults in me than may appear from the outside. We all do. Enough said.

And now for what I had originally planned to post about. Going from a newbie in Stevens Point to an Au.D. in Chilton. Oh how the last eight years have flown by! I remember the final drive away from Chilton and staying in Stevens Point as a family for the first time like it was just yesterday. Jay and I were both only 19 at the time and we had a one year old son. We were setting off on our own and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It was crazy! I look back on those times and wonder how we ever made it. Our story as a family has many ups and downs (more ups), but then so does everyone's story.

We settled into our first home away from home and started college in a new town away from everyone we knew. We both got jobs and our 'grown up' life started. I remember even then wondering and thinking how we would make it through our undergrad years.

And yet, time never stood still and we continued to thrive away from home. We made friends. We passed classes. We failed classes (well only one). We started to love Stevens Point and started to consider it our new home.

After two years in our first apartment, we outgrew it and wanted to move. We found our second home in Stevens Point. I graduated from college and then Jay graduated from college. Then I decided it might be smart to go back for my Doctorate. O.M.G.! I had NO idea what I was getting myself into! Haha!
By that time we had a pretty solid foundation in Stevens Point. It had become our home. We loved the city. We had fallen pleasantly into the role of parents. Ayden kept us on our toes. It was great. We were doing alright. We were making it on our own and we were all happy. I started grad school and then we decided that we wanted to move AGAIN. Well, mostly it was me deciding. I like change, haha! We found our third home in Stevens Point and it was by far the best we had out of the three. We spent three years in that house and loved them all! We travelled the city by bike and frequented the parks and the library.

I started the Au.D. program and thought to myself after the first year that I was insane. There was no way humanly possible that I was going to make it through the next three years and actually graduate with my Doctorate. Just not going to happen! Classes and projects and work and family got just really overwhelming at times. But my honey made life tolerable and he put up with me (haha) and my little man knew just the right things to say and do to put a smile on his mommy's face (still does).

Before I knew it, it was time to consider a fourth year placement and decide if we wanted to up and move our family again. It was decided. We were going to move back to our hometown. I had a great placement lined up and Jay found an amazing job. Ayden would go to school where we went. I had great fears about moving back to our home town though. If you've read my blog for any length of them, you probably read about those. I wasn't concerned about finding a place to live... it sort of fell into our laps, haha! I was worried that after seven years of living away from our family and making it work on our own that once we moved back we would start to rely on them and I didn't want that. We knew we could make it on our own and I didn't want to stop doing that.

Oh how I was wrong! See, it happens, haha! Happens quite a bit actually! Moving back 'home' was the best decision that we could have made. We are still operating as our own family and doing things on our own, but we are SO much more involved in our families than we were when we lived in Stevens Point. I loved Point and still do. Actually, it is probably one of the only farther away cities that I would consider moving back to at some point. There is nothing like getting a call on the way home from work from your dad asking if you want to have supper with them, or your mom stopping in unannounced to show you her new vehicle. It's the little moments that I didn't even know we were missing until we moved back. The interference I was expecting from our families hasn't happened. I think they all realized that since we were away for seven years, we knew what we were doing and how to operate on our own that they didn't need to. We moved away as we were becoming adults and we came back adults. I don't know that our parents were ever really THAT concerned about us, but as a parent myself now, I know that we were never very far from anyone's mind.

I sit and just smile about all that has happened in the last eight years and cannot believe in just two weeks my formal education will come to a close. I remember my high school graduation and it being bitter sweet. An ending and a beginning. I was proud at my college graduation of what I had accomplished; however, because I knew I would be going back once the summer was over, it wasn't THAT big of a deal for me. Now as I sit and wait for my last graduation I can't help but think of all of the people who have helped me get this far. If it weren't for the continued support from Jay and Ayden, both of our families, immediate and extended, my friends, co-workers, supervisors, and professors... I wouldn't currently be waiting to graduate with my Doctorate. It is just an amazing feeling!

As this chapter of my life comes to a close, I am MORE than ready for the next one to start! Bring it on 'real' life! It's time to put some money in the bank, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!