My bookbag for school is going to be heavy tomorrow

I just stumbled upon three interesting finds on the interwebs.

1.)  http://nccatnews.com/2014/04/04/uncg-student-wins-research-award-on-work-at-nccat/ (article about an award presentation last spring that contained the picture below...)

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2.)  This image with my advisor from the Graduate Research and Creativity Expo back in 2013 which is serving as motivation to find another avenue to present my dissertation research due to not having had an Expo in 2014 for which I already had created materials.  I want the chance to play my Trivial Pursuit pie game with this research!  ;)

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3.)  http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/listing.aspx?styp=ti&id=16183 (electronic version of my dissertation)

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I also received a box in the mail today.  In it was my dissertation bound into a book.  Wow.  All the blood, sweat, and tears (not to mention hours and hours of transcription, gas and miles I put into my car, and all the networking that went into making this study happen) are all wrapped up in this simple black book.  It is almost too plain.  I wonder if I should put a sparkly colorful butterfly sticker on the cover.  No?

Anyhow, how awesome it is to hold this beauty in my hands.  I'm going to proudly take it to school tomorrow and stick it on a shelf in my office.  My family will probably grow tired from the sight of it as I bring it to family functions to show them during the holidays.  What an incredible feeling to have this bound copy.  Granted there are some mistakes in it that seem to glare back at me from the crisp white pages.  It's a wonder the mistakes got past the editor, the dissertation lady at UNCG, my advisor, others who reviewed my work, and my own eyes (yet by the end the pages were all a blur to me) but no matter!!!  This black book represents all that has happened since Super Bowl Sunday 2012 and then some!

I am so incredibly grateful to those who have helped with this leg of the journey (you know who you are!).  Now, we can sit back, thumb through the pages, and say......"Finally!"

For those of you still plugging away at it....don't lose hope.  It can be done and I'll be cheering you on as you inch closer and closer to that Phinish Line!  :)