On Friday evening, the end of an era happened. I took my LAST final exam of grad school EVER. Which means that after three and a half years of studying my ass off, I will FINALLY be walking across a stage next Sunday with my MBA degree in hand (and a LOT more free time).

Grad school has been a long, sometimes stressful, but life changing experience for me. I had no idea what to expect when I started grad school. I went through my whole first semester without making any friends, and taking accounting, which is not a subject I am strong in. My second semester I took a statistics class that was so difficult (mostly because of the professor; I did fine in stats in undergrad) that I nearly broke down in tears with my dad on the phone one day and contemplated dropping out. It took a combination of him telling me I could do it and a colleague encouraging me to not give up that kept me going.

Fast forward three years and so much has changed. I’ve made several amazing friends in grad school, studied abroad in Scandinavia, learned A LOT, and even become close with a few professors. I feel that I have the tools to not only be successful in any work setting, but also the empowerment to perhaps start my own business or freelance consult someday.

I took my final exam Friday evening, so for the rest of the weekend I celebrated finishing. Mark came to London and together we went to a new Cuban restaurant I wanted to try, went mini-golfing, and had drinks at the Shard (and opened a bottle of bubbly!).

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I’m flying home Thursday for about a week to spend time with Markie and my family. Friday I’m celebrating my graduation with friends, and then Sunday will be the actual graduation ceremony with my parents hosting a formal dinner celebration after. I’m so excited to see everyone!

Till then, I’m proud to be an (almost) GRADUATED Hokie!