Tomorrow, April 20th, is my last official day of graduate school. Technically I haven’t been in the clinic for the past 2 weeks, but I’ve been working extensively on a research project to continue to fulfill my time and even though I’ll still be working on the project beyond tomorrow, it doesn’t change the fact that tomorrow, I’m finished. Tomorrow, I have completed all my units, all the hours of clinical time.

Tomorrow I will officially have fulfilled all my requirements for my doctorate.

And in less than a month, I’ll either walk across the stage or be mailed a diploma that indicates that after 3 years of extremely hard work, I’ve finished. And with a graduating GPA of 3.74, which exceeded any GPA I ever imagined. I’ll have new initials to put after my name (on important documents), I’ll have a fancy title. I will be as educated as I am ever going to be.

I want to say something profound, because this truly feels profound, but words are failing me right now.

I’m not sure if I ever really thought this day would come. I have had April 20th, 2012 starred on a calendar for almost 3 years. It was my end goal and then everything just…got derailed. There were headaches, MRIs, lumbar punctures, blood patches, more MRIs more lumbar punctures. There were weeks of school missed, days of nothing but constant crying and disbelief that things would get better. Things felt completely hopeless time and time again. I really thought that my dream was done.

And here I am, at 10pm on April 19th. I’ve done it. I made up missed exams, I caught up on missed lectures and studied more than I ever thought was humanly possible. I found a balance that allowed me to take care of myself and still master the material. I somehow didn’t give up, even when it was all I really wanted to do.

Tomorrow, I am finished.

April 20th was always the light at the end of the tunnel. And we’re finally there. And I have to say, it is glorious.

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