MPH: Mastered

Welp, I officially closed the BYU MPH chapter yesterday by walking in convocation. I graduated in June, and neither option for walking - April or August - initially seemed like a good one, so I figured I'd just duck out of the ceremoniousness and consider my mailed diploma final closure. However, in my currently unemployed state, I didn't have anything better to be doing yesterday, so our attitude toward ceremoniousness changed from why bother to why not? The graduation ceremony itself was quick - there were few graduate students and not so very many undergraduates walking in the College of Life Sciences, so we were done in about 45 minutes. That was just enough time for Drew to watch me walk across the stage (as a grad student with the last name Barnes, I was about 5th in line) and then finish watching Warrior on his iPod, which has been paused since his plane landed earlier than he planned in Utah last week. After it was all said and done, we met Lori on campus and she took some pictures for us. Then we celebrated (graduation and one afternoon of freedom from a nasty work schedule for Drew) with Spicy Thai, Krispy Kreme, and a Redbox movie. It was a great end to a pretty good two years as an MPHer at BYU.

Here is a look at our day:

Done and done. I think I'm glad we went through with it. Honestly, the speakers were generally a combination of monotonous, depressing, and self-serving, and that cap and gown was both itchy and hot, but closure is good and my MPH definitely feels closed. Plus, maybe now that I've worn the goofy get-up and walked across the stage and everything, job opportunities will start just flooding in. We can hope, right?