Last Day of My Undergraduate classes.

As I drove to school I started smiling, and it was the uncontrollable kind of smile that simply won't go away, the one that continues to spread until you have a full fledged grin making fellow drivers nervous. I am graduating next week. I AM GRADUATING. I am accomplishing something that is incredible and I am in awe.

This semester has just been the most challenging four months of my life. I have had 4.5 classes, two jobs, presidency in a club, and have been challenged applying like mad for jobs. I thought of something today...

I put myself out there about 100 times this semester. I failed or was rejected 80 or 90. I focused on those, God reminded me of the 10 or 20, and how hard I worked in the 80 or 90.

This semester I have written about non-lethal weapons technology, the implications and messages of given technologies, Zimbabwe, public defenders, Kazakhstan, Russia, U.S. intervention in the third world, The United States as an Empire , Germany, Iraq...I have presented two speeches to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, One defending a special judicial system set up to counter terrorism, one on education policy...I attended a preliminary court hearing, a murder trial, federal courthouse proceedings, JAMS in San Francisco (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services), developed a passion for pancakes, heard Barack Obama speak in Oakland, ran to support the Knowledge is Power Program, all while continuing to grow as a woman in my faith, my intellect, and my understanding of the world. I am not bragging, I am saying with certainty that this semester, yeah it was pretty amazing.

I am excited to keep learning and to see what that looks like after college. I was rejected, praised, ignored, high fived...and I am graduating next week. I am graduating, and I am more grateful than ever for everything I have and everything I am.