Today was my very last day of classes at university at the undergrad level.
It’s been a long and fairly grueling 5 years. It was 5 years because I’m graduating with a double major in electrical engineering and journalism (tl;dr version - I loved journalism but in Arab society you’re either an engineer or a doctor).
It finally started hitting me last week that I’m almost done, so I started getting the requisite nightmares. I dreamt I had signed up for a course whose classes I wasn’t attending and I was about to fail. I dreamt I was missing exams. I dreamt the university cancelled my major. But they all felt like cliches because I’ve been in school for so long. So I smiled smugly while dreaming of freaking out, knowing deep inside that none of it was true and that I was graduating anyway.
It has been a hectic couple of weeks, having to run around doing graduation errands, and with no final exam study period to speak of, that I haven’t really had time to think about it. It sort of just sprung up on me.
But I think I’m finally ready. My engineering degree will fall by the wayside because, although I did pretty well in it, I really dislike it. On the journalism side, I’ve been freelancing for over a year and a half, and I’ve written for magazines and daily newspapers here, and even the Associated Press (knowing Arabic rocks). Although I don’t have a job yet, I’m optimistic. I have the opportunity to do another internship at the AP or a number of other news organizations if I want to, and one of the newspapers I wrote for might hire me in July. But one advantage of graduating in the middle of a recession is I can get some time off. I can’t wait to take a break, and I have enough money saved up from freelancing to maybe take a trip somewhere.
Anyway, apologies for the slightly emo post! I’m just really happy and relieved right now, and visiting this place regularly over the past few years has been instrumental in getting me to enjoy the last 5 years, which made them a lot more bearable. So thanks QT3!
Fun fact – those nightmares never go away. I’ve been out of school for 10 years and I still regularly dream that I can’t remember where my classroom is, or I’m about to fail the class because I haven’t attended since the first day, or I haven’t done homework in weeks and today’s the final, or…
I dream I’m back in high school. It’s horrid. It’s only been, what, 15 years since I was last there? And I have the same “forgot to study/skipped class all semester/blanking on the final” dreams. I hoped they stop now that I’m back in college, but nooooooo…
My particular favorite is the “we went over your transcript, and that class you took at another school doesn’t count after all, so we’re going to need your diploma back now” dream.
