Master of What?

I think my diploma came in the mail on Saturday.  Haven't opened it. I don't want.  Somehow the prospect is... well, it's a little depressing since I'm doing nothing remotely related to what I just spent the past 2 1/2 years, not to mention what feels like a gazillion dollars, studying.  I'm not too upset, I think, about how my career--really lack of a career--has shaped up thus far.  I'm working at two places I really like; one is a great social outlet and fun and the other has the potential to turn into some very marketable skills.  I certainly won't be the first body to go into something unrelated to all of the schoolin' I've been doin'.  Still... this 8 1/2 x 11 cardboard envelope, sent first class mail and hand stamped "DO NOT CRUSH"... I'd rather not open it just now.


o dear.

Besides, I totally recognize that my unwillingness to move from the city of Seattle has hampered my ability to get work in my field.  It's a failing that I have.  Not wanting to move.  For work.  For a career.  I know this and I accept it.  Not that I'm absolutely against uprooting myself, but if I don't have to I don't want to.  I like it here.  I like being able to live in an affordable (so far) city that still offers a great amount of culture and people and food and a temperate climate.  Even if it gets a bit unbearable every few years... this past spring was a doozy.  And how.

Ok.  I opened it.  Pretty vellum diploma.  Official transcripts, too.  3.898 GPA.  (Darn that B in Cataloging and Classification.)  Ugh.  Kinda wish I'd left it unopened for a few more days.  I wasn't ready to see that.

Yeah.  Definitely not ready.

There were tears.

I'm still in a little bit of shock.  Maybe denial?  I just turned in my last assignment, ever, as an MLIS grad student.  I keep staring at the computer screen as if I expect something to happen--say, for instance, a hand to reach out with a roll of paper tied with red velvet ribbon and a computer recorded voice exclaiming only as a computer-generated voice can, "Congratulations.  You have completed your degree requirements."  Or maybe no hand, no diploma (because I assume the rolled up paper was a diploma) and just a voice saying "You still owe UWM 0.40 cents and until we have that, you cannot graduate."  I do, apparently, owe 40 cents, and in order to pay that I have to also pay a $6.00 service fee if I use an electronic payment.  I am not paying this.  I don't even know how it's possible to owe 40 cents.  Tomorrow I am calling the Bursar's office and either getting it removed or telling them that I'll send a check for the amount in order to avoid this so called convenience fee.  (Hold it.  Is there somewhere in here that I can blame Ticketmaster for this?  Were there "convenience fees" before Ticketripoff got in the game?  I wonder...)

But the denial.  I can't believe that starting tomorrow--heck, starting right now--I won't have any assignments due, readings to complete, discussions to participate in... nothin'.  Sunday morning, when I wake up, start the water for coffee and head downstairs to retrieve my Times I'll be able to read the entire paper if I want to.  No need to impose a time limit on myself in order to ensure that I get started on the week's class readings.  I CAN EVEN DO THE CROSSWORD!!!!

This will take some getting used to.

(Notice I said "as an MLIS grad student;" one never knows if I may return for some more o' that expensive book learnin' at a later date.  A much later date.)