Life as a graduate part 2, and spring break 2012

I love life right now, and I’m so glad I graduated a semester early. I thought I would hate being away from William and Mary, but let’s be honest. I don’t have to write papers or study for exams. My parents cook for me. I have a real bed. I get to cuddle with my kitties any time I want. Instead of paying for school, people PAY ME to do stuff! And I only live an hour away from school, so I can visit any time I want! What a deal!

I’m a lot busier this spring than I expected to be.

My two jobs occupy most of my time. I enjoy being a receptionist. I’m learning lots about how a medical office works, and I enjoy goofing off with my coworkers. During our free time, we started a “fraternity” called BOX, where we balance boxes on our heads. Today, we witnessed six police cars surround a person and arrest her right outside our window. It was like a crime show except we couldn’t hear what was going on, but we had fun guessing. My other job teaching chemistry and math at a tutoring club is also really rewarding!

Training for my two races occupies a lot of my time. In addition to the 10K next weekend, I also signed up for a triathlon in May, so I’ve been swimming a lot too.

During William and Mary’s spring break, I was able to take a week off of my life as a graduate and go on a road trip with nine of my college friends from my freshman hall. We traveled all around the southeast, exploring the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, eating beignets and gumbo in New Orleans and listening to really great jazz music (two of my friends even went on stage and performed at an open mic), hiking to see the beautiful falls at Tallulah Gorge, and eating the best vegan food imaginable at a restaurant called Plant in a little town in the mountains of North Carolina. Most of our time was spent in New Orleans, where the weather was sunny and 70 degrees all three days we were there, the people were crazy but friendly, and the colorful streets decorated with beads, artists and fortune tellers. We ran into Sasha Baron Cohen and a couple of other William and Mary students and graduates, which was very exciting! Sasha Baron Cohen ran away from us when we recognized him, but the William and Mary students ran toward us and embraced us, even though most of us didn’t know each other. Meeting a William and Mary student when you’re traveling outside of Virginia is like meeting a long lost cousin. I’m really happy that after graduating from William and Mary, I still feel very connected to the William and Mary community. I even still get those annoying emails from listservs I don’t remember signing up for. It’s great.

This week is kind of crazy for me because I have to make a decision between two amazing choices for graduate study, Johns Hopkins and UNC Chapel Hill, and I have no idea what to do. I’m looking forward to the weekend, to having a decision, for the Hunger Games movie, and friends coming to visit for my birthday!