Are you serious...?!?!?!?!?

Well, I haven't updated my blog in a couple of days for many reasons. I have been extremely busy and I also have not had the emotional stability to force myself into writing about my final goodbyes in Knoxville.
So, school is now OFFICIALLY OVER!!! I can't really believe that I am actually finished with school. It is odd because my whole life, I have been going to school. It is just natural now. So, what do you do when that is over?!
Also, what do you do when you leave your best friends in the entire world?! This entire weekend has been full of goodbyes and tears. Friday was like a funeral. I felt as though someone (or 23 people) in my family had died. It was the strangest feeling. After 5 years of college, the culminating event was turning in our assignments and heading to Pancho's. How is that for anticlimactic?! Then, we ate "the last supper" and added salt to our meals with our tears. These people have been my life for some of the most important events of my life. I honestly can't imagine not being able to run down the street to tell them about what happened at work, or hop in the car to go eat and gossip, or just hang out in the living room of a dear friend's home eating out of buckets!! ;)
The rest of the weekend wasn't much better. I saw friends at church that I had to say goodbye to as well, since it was my last week there, too. It seems like the goodbyes are never ending, and if you know me at all, you know I don't do goodbyes, not even over the phone. It is so...FINAL!! I hate it. And maybe that's why. Maybe this all seems a little too final for me. Change always sucks, but this is HUGE change. I guess that means that is sucks even more.
I know that there will still be moments when I miss everyone, and there may even be a few more tears. But, I have full confidence that we will keep in touch and be as close as we are now. I love these people and look forward to seeing where life takes them.

Technology and Goodbyes

When we were in class this past week, we had to learn how to use a lot of different types of technology (i.e. blogs). I also had to learn how to produce my own podcast. Denise actually did most of the work, but I really did learn how to do it. We wanted to pay homage to our classmates by producing a goodbye podcast. Hopefully, it will all work out and you can see it. I can't imagine what is to come for all of us, but I know I will always have a group of friends, that is more like a family, whom I created great memories with.

Okay...Here we go...

So, I am completely new at this whole "blog" thing. I have been pretty resistant when it comes to having my thoughts and pictures posted to where everyone can see. But, I have succumb to the idea and am trying to learn how to use it to the best of my ability.

Right now, I am having a hard time with the REAL reason I started blogging. I really want to keep my teacher ed. friends up to date with what is going on in my life. We have been together for 5 years, and this Friday our lives will change DRAMATICALLY. We finish grad. school and we are all going in separate directions. It is the strangest feeling. I keep thinking we are just going home for the summer and that we will be back in the fall. Reality has definitely not set in yet, and I don't know if I want it to. A huge part of me doesn't want to move on, even though I know there is nothing I can do to stop it. I AM ready to be done with school, but I am NOT ready to leave my family here.

I do have some comfort in the fact that I know where I am going, but then the uncomfortable part comes back up: no place to live, no job, new city, new people, and a whole lot more. I know it will all work out, but I still have that bittersweet taste in my mouth.