Graduation

[DarthTofu]

SOCL just recently graduated from college, so wish him luck as he progresses.

 

Now, on to the far more important matter- I graduate from high school tomorrow, so all of you stand up in a line and give me the mandatory and insincere wishes of happiness and joy throughout college and life that decorum dictates you must give me!

[Jahled]

 

Well done you mate; life is a bit easier with a few academic options under your belt

[Evaders99]

I know several people graduated this spring. Congrats!

[Darth_Rob]

Congrats buddy! Hope you have a blast in college. Just remember to steer clear of those ridiculous frats, and you'll be fine.

 

And just to toot my own horn here, this is my last semester, so I'll be graduating in December with my Masters!!!

[DarthTofu]

Go Rob! We'll revive this topic when that rolls along!

 

On a related note: I'M A SITHSPITTIN' GRADUATE! GO ME!

[Darth_Rob]

Dont go too crazy. My high school graduation night was one of the craziest of my life...

[DarthTofu]

... So I and a few friends decided that, seeing as we would have spent the majority of the school-sponsored "Grad Bash" function, where every grad from two or three counties piles into the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure theme park, we would go ahead and skip the school function (and the ensuing long-as-hell lines) and go to Islands of Adventure on our own time, on our own coin, now that we've graduated. We went today, bright and early, leaving at seven thirty to make it in time for the park to open up. When we got there, we found that there were no lines, like, at all.

 

I went on Dueling Dragons fire three times or so and Ice at least six times. My girlfriend, being a rollercoaster-phobic sort of person, had the annoying habit of shutting her eyes on the coaster, and proclaiming that they were horribly scary. The amazing idea that you ought to open your eyes (Honor Grad, ladies and gentlemen) had never really occurred to her, and by the third ride, I managed to convince her to open them for the straight parts; took three more rides before she'd leave 'em open for the whole ride, but I managed it eventually.

 

We did The Incredible Hulk Coaster a good five or six times, with our ride photos ranging from that first "The hell? There's a camera on this ride?" photo to our final few, which included the "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, smell no evil" (the cars are four across, and we ran out of senses to deny; "touch no evil" seemed difficult to manage) poses and four idiots all doing the "fishhook" facial expression (Fingers stretching the mouth wide, tongue out). Needless to say, it was a blast, and confirms what I always knew; if you go to theme parks when everyone else has work or school, you have no crowds and no lines. It was awesome.

 

Unfortunately I sincerely doubt that any of you can take advantage of it, as school is about two days from being over for everyone else in Florida. Oh well.

[Darth_Rob]

Dude, that is soooo cool. I loved Islands of Adventure when we went a few years back. That was a smart move on your part. Our senior trip took us to Six Flags Great Adventure, and it was so crowded and annoying to have to follow the school's "schedule" for the days events.

 

Im glad to here how dead it was there. The misses and I bumped up our wedding to May 30 2010, so we will be heading down to Disney World for our honeymoon in early June rather than early July. Im hoping that it is still that dead around that time. I hate crowds and whatnot.

[DarthTofu]

People take their kids to Disney; I'd say that the best time to go would be some time when people would have their kids in school, and can't get them out, like during exams. Unfortunately, you being a teacher, that may prove difficult. But I'd say go while school would be in session if you want to get fewer crowds. Also, right after a holliday weekend; that's why we chose today. Everyone goes home after the holiday weekend is over.

[Darth_Rob]

Yeah, thats our plan...right after the holiday. I dont plan on teaching full-time by then. Since I wont be certified until December/January, I dont expect to be landing a teaching job until next Fall.

[Krytos]

Congratulations!

 

Why is it my only posts these days seem to be congratulating someone?

[Mad78]

Well done Tofu!

 

I guess this is the place to post about how my exams are going.

So far they have been a living hell. On the third day of my exams I went to see the doctor after some severe throat pains only to be diagnosed with a rather nasty throat infection. No sooner have a started to get better (ie yesterday) than my dog starts getting very sick too. We had to take her in to the emergency vet yesterday after seeing that she couldn't move anymore. After spending let them keep her there over night and seeing today that there was no improvement we took her to out normal vet who diagnosed a hernia in her neck. Apparently it was applying pressure to her nerve and that was why she couldn't move. Since the treatement was a very heavy one with no guarantee of recovery we took the decision.

She passed away at 2:35 this afternoon.

And now I have to prepare my economy exam for tomorrow and I don't know how I'm gonna manage it psychologically.

 

Sorry to bother you with my ramblings.

[DarthTofu]

Rest assured, you're not bothering anyone, Mad. That's aterrible, and I'm sorry to hear about how badly things are going for you! That's not pleasent at all; losing a pet is never fun, being sick is never fun, and taking exams almost always sucks. All in all, this is stuff you need to go ahead and get off of your chest; if nothing else, I'm more than willing to read about it on the net whenever things are bad.

[Mad78]

Thanks Tofu.

Its just the first time in my life I've had so mush s*** happens to me all at the same time. Its quite overwhelming

[DarthTofu]

Best thing for it is to talk it over with someone. Probably not somebody online, truth-be-told, but if that's the only place you feel comfortable going, it's better than nothing. A parent, a friend, a sibling, etc. It's all cliche and overstated, but that's because it's true.

 

You are, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it) not the first person to have a whole bunch of crap dumped on your plate all at once. It isn't fun, by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems a bit more managable when you realize that other people have delt with that and more in the past.

 

My solution (and, admittedly, it's a rather odd one) is to go about trying to perform random acts of kindness. That doesn't seem like it'll help all that much, but it's amazingly uplifting when you help someone else, and it takes your mind completely off of your own predicament.

 

In your case, I'd suggest setting up a (nonalcoholic) study group of some sort to deal with your upcoming exam. Invite a person or two from the class (maybe a cute girl? ) and perform some studying for a while at your place. You'll get some done, and when you aren't studying, it's generally an amusing experience just goofing off and shooting the breeze. I remember that tutoring some friends in Calculus helped me through a particularly rough time involving a bad breakup.

 

Sorry, now I'm focusing on me. I guess that the bottom line is this: Get active in something, and try to refrain from thinking, "I'm being active, so I won't be thinking about this at all!" Something physical, that'll make you break a sweat, will really make you feel better, help you sleep better, etc. Maybe develop a study game that involves dodgeball in it? Get the study questions correct and you're a dodger; get them wrong and you have to stand on the outside and try to hit the people in the middle with little rubber balls? Just suggestions.

 

Best of luck getting through it, though.

[Darth_Rob]

Sorry to hear about all thats going on over their in Mad Land. I know how much it hurts to lose a loved family pet.

 

I think Tofu gave some good advice. Its good to be amongst others during these times, and I think it will be most beneficial to you to have a study group to help you focus on your upcoming exam.

 

Good luck with everything. I dont want to sound like a jerk or a pessimist, but things will turn around and get better. They always do.

[Mad78]

Thanks guys. It helps.

I've kind of gotten over the initial shock of loosing the pooch.

Now the hard bit is just getting used to the absence.

 

Anyway thank you so much for your messages of support.

 

Now i just have to concentrate on my exams.

[DarthTex]

I dont want to sound like a jerk or a pessimist, but things will turn around and get better...

If things will "turn around and get better" and you're "a pessimist", what are things like when you're an optimist?

 

 

 

Hang in there Mad!

[Mad78]

Thanks Tex!

 

I feel kind of bad turning this whole thread into a sad one consiedering it's all about Tofu's Graduation. Once again well done T!!!

 

Hopefully my graduation should take place in about 14 days. Wish me luck!!!

[DarthTofu]

Thanks Tex!

 

I feel kind of bad turning this whole thread into a sad one consiedering it's all about Tofu's Graduation. Once again well done T!!!

 

Hopefully my graduation should take place in about 14 days. Wish me luck!!!

 

*Strikes a pose* Wonderful though I am, and egocentric though I am, I didn't start the thread specifically to talk about me. I knew you were also graduating at some point in the near future, and SOCL, the ever-present (slash, you know, ever-absent) moderator recently graduated from college, if I read his stuff on Facebook properly (no guarantees). It was meant, more than anything else, for folks to talk about where they were in life and where they wanted to go as they graduated. Maybe a place to pass on some wisdom, voice some fears about what was to come...

 

Say, what's this? Mad actually wasn't off-topic at all! Is today opposite day or something?

 

We're all more than willing to listen to you vent for the first and, at least for the nearly four years I've been on these forums, only time. Even if it had been off-topic, I think we'd've been willing to hear it. So, like everyone's said: No worries. You'll pull through this, and be stronger for it. The Marines if our country have a saying: Pain is weakness leaving the body. I'm usually not one to use a phrase like that, but I really do think that you come out made of sterner stuff for hardships.

[Krytos]

Thanks Tex!

 

I feel kind of bad turning this whole thread into a sad one consiedering it's all about Tofu's Graduation. Once again well done T!!!

 

Hopefully my graduation should take place in about 14 days. Wish me luck!!!

 

Pffft, it's only Tofu.

 

Sorry to hear about your dog, mate.

Losing a close animal is like losing a member of the family. Like Tofu has said, and Rob, talk about it if you need to. Hell, if you don't need to, it still helps to talk.

 

Anyway, keep your mind set on things happy and plow through till your graduation. Good luck mate, and enjoy it. Graduating only happens once ... unless you go onto more studies, then it happens all over again

Oh! And trrrry not to do something you might regret on that fateful night not too far in the future

[Mad78]

My last exam was today.

Alea jacta est.

Thursday I will know if I graduate.

[Krytos]

Congrats on finishing your last exam! And don't worry about graduating, I'm sure you already have

[DarthTofu]

If not, I'm sure you'll be welcome at the local college here. The acronym reads BCC, the last two letters of which are meant to say "Community College," the B standing for my county (don't feel like dishing that out to anyone). The students all refer to it as "Beer Community College," though, on account of the wild parties. Somehow, I think you'd be able to show 'em a thing or two about drinking and partying.

[Darth_Rob]

I always considered my local county community college "13th grade", on the part that it was just an extension of high school, as in the same people were there, the course work was the exact same stuff we did in high school (and not challenging), and I still attended it while living at my parents. Let me tell you, it left me very ill-prepared for when I went to "real" college.

 

Sorry, I just love bashing on community colleges.