Thursday, December 23, 2010

Milestones

A friend reminded me today of my plans for my 30th (which was 2 years ago now and said plans never fruitioned - is that a word?). I had conjured up in my mind a Bon Jovi garden party with fake tattoos and bandannas for all. Well I didn't go ahead with it, life kind of got in the way.

That same month however, I did attend my graduation earning my Diploma in Education. I only invited Toby (family stuff going on at the time too!) and I drank in the wonderful feeling of achievement.

I had started the DipEd in 2001 then became pregnant with my daughter. The 'morning' sickness was so bad that I lost 5kg in the first Trimester. I had to put my studies on hold. The sickness didn't end but I did start to gain weight and finally gave birth to a healthy 3kg girl. A couple of years later my son was born. All that I needed to do was a 6 week teaching Prac. but I didn't want to use daycare so I waited until circumstances allowed me to leave my children in school or with family and took on the 6 week Prac. It was great. I loved the students, my mentor, the other teachers at the school, the challenges, the change of pace... and finally 7 years after starting it I was done!

So the graduation was pretty sweet for me, it was a long time in coming.

If I could have a do-over I would delay parenthood until after embarking on a career and set myself up to be in a position to take maternity leave. However, how do you know when enough is enough? When have you set yourself up enough that you can take an extended break from the workforce to parent and then return to some kind of secure position? Really I don't think this is the way the world works anymore anyway, career changes are pretty common and regular. I guess everyone rolls with the punches as much as setting goals. There's my ramblings for the day. In essence, when I stumbled across these pictures today they reminded me of just how far I really have come. It's been a busy life! and these days - a very happy one.



4 comments:

  1. I have no idea what the American diplomas stand for either! The DipEd is a postgraduate course. I earned a Bachelor of Arts first but opted to graduate without any ceremony, this time I wanted to wear the robes!! I am thinking of starting a Masters sometime soon in Health Education with a focus of High School Education, Sex Education, Drug Education etc. Have to narrow that down a bit ;) .... and then I think you get to wear the hat!! or is that for a doctorate? don't know. From what the TV tells me Americans get to wear the hats no matter what the degree?

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  2. I was wondering where your hat was. Yeah, we wear the hats all the time. That's Americans for you. A lot of kids even have Kindergarten graduation (which I think is ridiculous) and they wear little hats and robes too. We get different colored tassels and sashes with higher level degrees.

    Anyway, belated congrats on a great achievement:)

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  3. Canaan had a Kindergarten graduation this year but there were no robes. Instead there was a rose arch, golden crowns and lots of organic food. He had just spent 3 years in Kindergarten so the graduation seemed to make a bit more sense in that scenario! But yeah, that's because it's a Steiner school, the mainstream schools don't do that here.

    Thanks for the congrats :) I am so glad I did it... there were times when I considered just leaving it unfinished but this feels so much better.

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  4. hey! our government, mainstream kindy had a graduation! With paper hats decorated by the graduates and snacks!

    *sulk

    Congratulations on your Graduation! (I feel like i should buy you a watch or something)

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