Yesterday, I attended the Professional Project Presentation (the non-thesis option for my MA program) of my dear friend Shireen. She and I started the program at the same time, way back in Spring 2011. We were drawn to each other as study/complain/celebrate buddies, mostly because we were both the most non-traditional students in the class. By this I mean that we were the only 30+ (ok, I think I was 29 at the time), 10-years-out-from-our-BAs, mothers of children (she has four) in the class.
We had almost all of our classes together until I took an extra class one semester and jumped slightly ahead in the program. The good thing is, we're back-door neighbors, so we still saw each other and were able to give each other advice even when we weren't sitting in class together. We both gave birth to baby boys during the program, too. At various times, we talked each other out of quitting or taking a semester off, and gave each other much-needed pep talks to get through the times when we felt stretched so thin between family and school. She always seemed to know when I needed a heaping plate of koshari dropped off at my door, and I tried to keep her American-born kids supplied with authentic chocolate chip cookies.
Attending her presentation yesterday was such a joy. We have been through so much together while working so hard for our MAs.
Here we are together after I defended my thesis five months ago. (Through an unfortunate fluke, she missed the defense itself - she showed up at the right place but the wrong time).
And here we are together yesterday.
Of course I'm happy to see Shireen finish the program, but I'm also sad to see our MA connection come to an end. After she's had time to take a few naps and recover from 3+ years of MA-induced stress, maybe we can get together and celebrate our accomplishments.
We had almost all of our classes together until I took an extra class one semester and jumped slightly ahead in the program. The good thing is, we're back-door neighbors, so we still saw each other and were able to give each other advice even when we weren't sitting in class together. We both gave birth to baby boys during the program, too. At various times, we talked each other out of quitting or taking a semester off, and gave each other much-needed pep talks to get through the times when we felt stretched so thin between family and school. She always seemed to know when I needed a heaping plate of koshari dropped off at my door, and I tried to keep her American-born kids supplied with authentic chocolate chip cookies.
Attending her presentation yesterday was such a joy. We have been through so much together while working so hard for our MAs.
Of course I'm happy to see Shireen finish the program, but I'm also sad to see our MA connection come to an end. After she's had time to take a few naps and recover from 3+ years of MA-induced stress, maybe we can get together and celebrate our accomplishments.