Here's to one crazy year.

Here's to an equally crazy or even scarier year ahead.

And I said to myself,
"Self, goodbye 2010, hello 2011.
Best of luck to you... you're gonna need it."

wrapping it up with a bow.

I really need to post about something other than school, I realize. If only I had something in my life that absorbed anywhere near the amount of time or energy! I'm catching my blog up to speed and then moving on to spend the holiday with my family and forget about school for the upcoming week. Only 8 weeks of school til graduation!!!!

Transcripts for 3rd quarter are in:

Anatomy: 109%
Chemistry: 96%
Embalming: 86%
Funeral Directing: 94%
Mortuary Law: 98%
Microbiology: 106%
Psychology: 109%
Restorative Art: 94%
Accounting: 93%
Pathology: 99%
Communications: 106%
History of Funeral Service: 78%
(I find this class about pyramids & Greeks & other incredibly boring topics so ::yawn:: that I barely pay attention & it shows)

3rd quarter GPA: 97.82%

My lab grades (Restorative Art, Embalming & Anatomy) are all cumulative and won't show up until my 4th quarter transcripts. The above classes of the same names are for lecture.

Cumulative GPA: 98.42%
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Last projects of 3rd quarter Restorative Art lab.
I'm now working on an entire skull.

hard to read but that's a 96%:

75%

that's how much I've accomplished.
I'm officially 75% through mortuary school.

I have yet to get my 3rd quarter transcripts but by my calculations, I'm still holding strong at a solid 97/98% overall GPA. Not too shabby by most peoples standards but not worthy of the 1st place keyholder status any longer.

I'm ok with it.
It's been a ridiculous strain.
FOR MONTHS.
I've actually lost sleep over, "If you don't finish 1st, you're last."
Utterly.F*cking.Ridiculous.

I know how hard I've worked,
how many times I wanted to quit...
but didn't.

The pressure I've felt the past 9 months over "finishing first" is gone. Not everyone can do it and apparently I'm one of them. The relief, not regret, I feel from this ephiphany is humbling...
yet liberating as shit.

The reality is, at graduation,
the only difference between their degree and mine
will be our names.

If by some strange twist of fate I earn that top spot, there will never be a moment I look at my fellow top students and forget how hard it was for every one of us to jockey our positions near the top or how frickin' ridiculous the stress over it really was.

Only I will own this degree.
Only I will know what it truly took to earn it and
I'm proud of myself.

It's about damn time I figured that out.
I'm running out of prescription pills to handle that insanity anyway.