From point A to point D...egree

People who know me well know that I have struggled for years to finally get my bachelor's degree. For the most part, I have always been a mostly-As-and-a-few-Bs student. But it still took eight long years to finally get this darn thing.

Why do I mention it? I may have graduated this past December, but I didn't get my degree in the mail until today. It is in my hot little hands. Finally.

For anyone who cares, here's my story:

- 2000 - I was 17 and started college as a pre-med major.
- 2001 - I decided that as much as I loved neuroscience, I didn't want to spend my life begging for grants. I became a film major, to pursue another one of my passions.
- 2002 - Catty peers and an adviser who once told me, "I'm sorry, I have no resources for you, good luck with that," led me to abandon all hope for the quality of education in the media and theater arts department. I switched to marketing.
- 2003 - The marketing department revealed their new logo. It was a cube. They said, "The four sides of the cube represent the four years it takes to get a degree." I went to their main office and said, very politely, "excuse me, a cube doesn't have four sides." They shunned me. I switched to English.
- Late 2003 - I was working upwards of 4 simultaneous part time jobs to afford school. An emotionally abusive ex was harassing me. I was tired of being treated like an anomaly for my race and liberal political views and I resented Montana for not being San Francisco.
- 2004 - I left Montana and moved in with my current boyfriend in Boulder, CO. I got a full time job, $10/hour. It's hard to find work without a degree, but luckily I had a ton of extracurriculars under my belt.
- 2004 - I took two classes at a community college while researching other Colorado colleges.
- 2005 - I continued to take online classes here and there from community college. I discovered that very few of my Montana classes transferred to Colorado schools. Back to square one.
- 2006 - I decided to take my full time job to part time and go back to school full time, finally settling on a major in Public Relations. I managed this for two semesters (and received scholarships for my straight As) before money became too tight to continue. I tried getting a second part time job for awhile, but inevitably I went back to work full time out of necessity.
- Late 2006 - My best friend noticed that my old college had developed an online Public Relations degree. I finished the semester at the Colorado college and registered for online Montana classes. I got all of the credits I had lost back.
- 2007 - I enrolled halftime at Montana State University and took classes in the Spring. I lost my job (rather, the job went out of business) and I moved to California with my boyfriend so he could attend law school (and because I love California).
- 2008 - With a steady, well-paying job at UCLA in hand, I went to school halftime for the spring semester. Forty hours of work per week, plus a daily two hour commute, plus six credits of senior level classes. My end goal was in sight, so I increased my course load to full time, 12 credits for the summer semester. For the fall semester, I took 17 credits. Sleep didn't happen much.
- Fall 2008 - I was done. Finally, finally done.
- May 2009 - Bachelor of Science degree in hand. B.S. in Public Relations. A B.S. in B.S.. Awesome.

I'm proud of the fact that I got my current job without a degree. I'm even more proud, but also resentful, of the fact that I finally have this piece of paper. I feel so behind and yet so accomplished.

If nothing else, I can say without hesitation that I am a fighter. It's worlds away from the life I imagined for myself back when I was a ballerina in the San Francsico Ballet's production of the Nutcracker, oh so many years ago. I was going to go to NYU. I was going to be an actress. But I still worked my ass off to get to where I am now.

My thoughts are with Bozeman, MT

I often joke about how I felt incompatible with Montana living. I rarely talk about why I also love it.

Today I must share with you how much I enjoyed my college town. There's something really wonderful about how warm and friendly everyone is. It's a tight-knit community, and the people there are truly willing to help out one another. They care deeply about their neighbors, and the tragic events yesterday ended up highlighting the benefits of living in a smaller town.

Bozeman Explosion

The peaceful, beautiful quiet that occurs in Montana after a snowstorm was violently disrupted by an enormous explosion in the downtown area yesterday morning. The landscape of historic Main Street was forever altered when a gas explosion took out Boodles restaurant and bar and caused severe structural damage to nearby buildings. As the day progressed, several other businesses were completely lost or severely damaged by a fire that raged for approximately 15 hours as emergency crews tried valiantly to shut off the antiquated gas lines. Broken glass and debris littered the streets blocks away from the burning buildings.

Image taken shortly after the initial explosion from: Bozexplod

Businesses destroyed included Boodles, the American Legion, the Rocking R bar, the Montana Trails Art Gallery, Lily Lu's children's store and the Pickle Barrel, which is inside the Rocking R. "The Rocky Mountain Rug Gallery and Starky's Delicatessen were also significantly impacted by the explosion and subsequent fire."

Some of the businesses that sustained damage were Odyssey, Ro Sham Bo, The Root, Girls Outdoors, Earth’s Treasures, Barrel Mountaineering, Helly Hansen and Western Drug. Even City Hall, many blocks away, had a broken window.

I signed onto Gchat yesterday morning to initially discover the news via a good friend's "status." She confirmed that she was fine and my first instinct was to call my mother and check on the location of my little brother and family friends. Next I hopped online to see what information I could find.

At first, I found the news coverage on the local press websites to be lacking. Eventually, I ended up turning to one of my Facebook friends. He started this: Twitter Feed, Bozexplod.

Thanks to Twitter, I was able to get real time updates of all of the emergency efforts in Bozeman. Each of the dedicated individuals on the feed spent their time relaying important information on resources for those affected by the day's events - where to stay, how to find information on missing persons, how to help, etcetera.

Thanks to the constant stream of "tweets" I knew exactly when 11 people were missing. I found out that the number had been reduced to five. Then one. I knew which businesses had been effected. I knew which streets were closed and how emergency crews were working to minimize the impact the streaming gas and raging fires would have on the community. I knew how far away the smoke could be seen and I had galleries upon galleries of constantly updated photostreams documenting the damage and the progress of emergency workers. I knew the governor had flown in and the National Guard was on call.

I knew this all from my office in Los Angeles, California.

To me, this is the power of social media. It is immediate, it is fluid. It can bring together people and resources on a level that more traditional media never has. Of course there were some tasteless individuals that attempted to RickRoll the feed. A few contributed conjecture and/or incorrect information. They were quickly weeded out and quieted by the dedicated individuals that flooded the web with truly useful information - far before the major media outlets picked up on the news.

Surprisingly and thankfully, no injuries were reported. However, there is one woman confirmed missing and crews were unable to begin sorting through the rubble until today. My thoughts are with her family and friends.

*EDIT* P.S. For those of you in and around the Bozeman area, please support the hell out of the businesses downtown that are open. It's a vibrant, fantastic downtown and I know you'll band together to help make it even better than it was before. */EDIT*

*2nd EDIT*
From: Digg

*/2nd Edit*

Golly gee, ole buddy, ole pal

A problem has arisen. Between full-time classes, full-time working and the freakishly long commute, I seem to have forgotten to go beyond meeting my coworkers and actually find friends. This was effortless in the latter part of high school and early college days.

Is it just me, or does this routinely happen to every twenty-something who relocates to a new town after college? I find myself over eager whenever I run into someone remotely close to my own age. "OMG you like paperclips? I LUUUUFF PAPERCLIIIIIPS!!!!!!" I don't intend to be that slightly off-putting overeager type, but here I am. Have I become some kind of hovering creep, or are the folks here less willing to meet new people? Is it the Los Angeles attitude, or is it my own doing? Maybe it's just my sheer lack of time.

Thank goodness my boo (best friend of ten years), is coming out for a visit over the 4th of July weekend.

Hopefully, once school comes to an end, I can start getting out an doing things. An improv comedy class is on my to-do list, and with the Groundlings freakishly close to my home, I may as well audition for their basic class. I think film festivals will be move #2.

'Stache this

Here's the thing: I've taken what feels like eleventy billion undergrad classes. I am so beyond sick of them. Every assignment is tedious and I stare blankly at my computer, willing the words to just plop onto the page themselves.

So now, here's an infographic I just created for my Visual Communication Class. Time to write a few pages of analysis on this sucker. Oh yeah...I take my learnin' real seriously.