365 Things to Smile About Day 248. HAPPY DAY!!!

If someone had told me three years ago I would be heading into the tail end of my Master's degree I would have laughed pretty hard!  I was finishing my undergrad after a long time and was looking forward to a probable teaching job in California.  I had no clue how my life was about to change.  Cancer was a detour that wasn't in my plans.  But then again, without it, I wouldn't be where I am today...excited beyond words and entering a field that I love!!!  Doing something that is so much more than just a job!

And today, as the heading says, was a happy day!  Lol!  I not only got the email confirming I can walk in the spring ceremony!!! (I technically don't get my diploma until the fall because of my internship and probably wouldn't make it back to the ceremony for that in December so I really wanted to walk this month).  I also went and bought my cap and gown and hood and tassel!!  I haven't been able to stop smiling all day!!!

The pictures below aren't the best...I'll definitely be posting more on the actual graduation day...but they are my first pictures of the goal that I never saw as a possibility three years ago!  And I can honestly say that while going through cancer the thought of graduate school never crossed my mind.  I was too afraid to think of the future too specifically.  I wanted to be better and I lost count of the times I said I wanted my life back but I was honestly so terrified of failing any plans I tried to set.  Everything was so uncertain and up in the air I didn't know how to take control of it again after treatment.  I started that path with graduate school but even with all the promise that held, I was still very scared of the future.  In fact, it wasn't until I met someone a little over a year ago who helped me start to see beyond the fear that I found myself thinking of more than just a year or two in advance.  I found myself not just wanting to but actually planning out a life.  And part of that life included this lovely outfit I am sporting below and everything it enables me to do now!  Lol!

I can plan a life!  I can look beyond just the immediate future!  I'm not afraid to do that anymore!  And I'm not just planning it, I am living it!  Lol!!