Tonight I accomplished something big. As most of you know I've been pursuing my post-professional doctorate in occupational therapy. I've been doing this since summer of 2016. I'm scheduled for graduation spring of 2018. In that time I've changed jobs twice, moved across the country, began a career in academia, and worked full time. The girls have missed out on time with me. I've been up too many late nights to count. I've faced hard criticism about my writing and fought to keep myself going. Tonight I turned in, what hopefully will be, my final edit of my proposal. To those not familiar with doctoral stuff you have to take classes, usually pass a comprehensive exam and or write a proposal for your research, then run your research and write your final paper and defend it orally. The timelines for these steps are tight. Like, unbelievably tight. I pretty much have to pass my final defense of my proposal on 12/8 to continue on to the second half of my final project. If I were to fail this I would essentially be dismissed from my program and would have thrown away money, time, and 1.5 years of blood, sweat, and tears. Failure is not an option.

I'm so fortunate to have an unbelievably support husband and children. A cabinet of family and friends cheering me on and bolstering me up. But from here on out its just me. Why do all this? Because simply put, I want my girls to KNOW that higher education is a thing that should happen if you want it. I want them to never worry that they aren't smart enough or rich enough to succeed as far as they'd like to go. I want them to see me do something I thought was too out of reach to accomplish. This degree is one of the only things that has really been mine. I love my job, I love my students, I want to succeed for them but so much more I want to do it for me. So here's to the first wish on the first star to the left. I've given all I've got. Stakes are about as high as they get (well so far). Lets do this!