Snapshots | School Days

Is it terrible that the only posts I manage to bring you these days are ranting and ravings about what I've been up to? With an instagram or two thrown in? At least I managed to combine this week's snapshots into a collage.

These days I'm really lovingthese downward perspective photos. Okay, excuse that poor explanation but really, I like taking a photo like this each day - a little diary of the weather, my outfit, my surroundings. I think it's going to be my new thing because, well, selfies? So not my thing.

Is that okay? Or are you tired of my feet already?

In other news: I finally have emojis and I'm enjoying it. I don't know about you but I can definitely explain myself better with little icons of doughnuts, fist pumps, and cats with financial expressions. Last week, after years of broken screens, non-functioning home buttons and frustration, I finally upgraded to a new iPhone. Maybe it's the improved camera, the new scenery, or even the sunny (104 degree!) weather, but I've been definitely snapping more photos these days.

I guess you could say I've been on a bit of a shopping spree this week, really - I finally purchased new glasses. (I'll share more about my Warby Parker experience, and my indecision, when they arrive!) Throw in some Clearance tees from Target, a sequin bombshell of a dress and some Turkey Hill iced tea and you've got my week.

Don't forget, Google Reader is going away this weekend! As of Monday, Friend Connect will exist no longer. I encourage you to subscribe to Sunlight and Air using your favorite blog reader. You can find me on bloglovin' here.

First Days

I spent much of the weekend preparing myself for the first day of school. Typical "OMG. its. the. first. day." behavior for someone as Type A and obsessive as me. You had already realized that was the extent of my personality, right? Type A and obsessive? 

Organizing my backpack, purchasing highlighters, getting a haircut, cleaning the house, and struggling over what to wear (I went with hot pink pants, in case you were wondering).

Then, yesterday, as I sat on the bus, the real, public, Albuquerque bus, I felt almost sad to be beginning my graduate career. Not the least bit sad because I didn't want to return to school - or sad because I was terrified of taking the bus alone - but sad because I thought for a moment that this first day of school would be my last.

But, I realized I still had a doctorate degree to begin.
And with that my first day woes were all but gone.

Then, I was handed a camera and the last of my worries disappeared.

It's official!

I am officially a University of New Mexico Lobo.
I even took the uncomfortable school ID photo to prove it.

Over the past few months, I have mentioned graduate school in this space only a handful of times. I worried that sharing details or dreams to soon could perhaps jinx the application process, the waiting, the assistantship interviews. While I hoped that I wouldn’t be disappointed in my graduate school outcome, I worried even more about disappointing those of you who have kept your fingers crossed for me over the past few months.

Now that I am officially enrolled, registered and simply waiting on assistantship contracts to be drafted, I thought I could share a little more of my excitement with you. After a month of interviews, held breath and wishful thinking, I can say that I am going to be completing my master's degree with full funding. I still can't believe it. 

Though we lived in Montana at the start of my graduate school application process, I chose to apply to schools scattered throughout the country. The hardest part of the process was knowing that I didn't have the resources needed to visit most of the schools on my list.

As the acceptance letters began to arrive, I began to feel worse and worse. Decision making has never been my strong suit and as I tossed over options, I grew frustrated. Next came the assistantships, the stipends, the scholarships - funding for every single school I had applied to except for this very university. Worse yet, I was carefully warned that assistantship funding was most often reserved for those who earned their BBA at UNM, for those who were in the second year of the program. I took a chance. I turned down great offers (like a funded PhD) for intuition.

Despite wanting to move back East to friends and family, despite loving Flagstaff and Northern Arizona's campus, something drew me to New Mexico. I knew that we couldn't stay in Montana and with a month's notice, we moved nearly 1100 miles - from the snowy mountains to the vast desert.

When I received an e-mail asking me to interview for an IT based assistantship, I nearly replied saying that I had already found a full-time job position. After the first interview, and talks of CSS and HTML5, I was terrified. Then, I spent hours preparing a design portfolio and a week worrying that I had blown my chance at funding. But somehow, I was hired as the newest project assistant for the Web Development Team for the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico. (It's a mouthful, isn't it?)

I have so many thoughts to share with you, thoughts on moving, on New Mexico, on trusting your self to make the right decision - too many thoughts for one post. I just couldn't resist sharing my news with you, sharing my excitement for a new opportunity, and my satisfaction for having made the right decision. Over the course of this summer, I hope to share more details on the MBA application process. A timeline to follow, tips for choosing a school. The process was terrifying but already so worth it.

I hope you can understand why it's been a little quiet here. I've been well, distracted. That being said, I have a feeling a lot of things will be changing over the next few weeks.

I hope I can keep up.