Funny hood thing

Friday I picked up my cap and gown and tassel and hood for the graduation ceremonies in one month at the University of Utah that I am participating in. I won’t be finished with my classes till the end of June or the first of July, but this is the closest graduation ceremony to then, and I really want to celebrate what I’ve done. I deserve it. So I got all the stuff.

For a brief moment when I picked it up the reality that I’m going to have a Masters degree in a few short months hit me hard and was temporarily terrifying. There are moments where what I am doing doesn’t feel real. It felt real right then. But I got over it. The degree isn’t going to change me much at all. For the time being I’m going to keep doing the exact same thing I’ve been doing for the last five years. The only change will be that I might change the signature on my work email to reflect the funny initials I’ll be able to put at the end of my name after all of this, and I’ll be making a bit more money. So it isn’t going to change anything for a while.

I am very giddy that I have a funny hood thing now. And because the University of Utah makes us buy our stuff instead of rent them, the funny hood thing is mine forever. My dad told me I couldn’t get a Masters degree if I was just doing it to get the funny hood thing. So I decided to do it because I could, which sounds a bit better than doing it for a funny hood thing. But I still did it in part for the funny hood thing.