I took my first last final today.

It went swimmingly. (That’s such a great word.) 
I went in with a plan of attack and crushed it. 
Said goodbye to my professor, and thanked her for the past nine months of pretty intensive Portuguese lessons.

Nine months.

She’s moving back to Brazil with her family. 
I hope I’ll get to see her one last time at commencement.  
I also hope that it doesn’t rain.
It hasn’t rained at an Emory commencement in 97 years or something. 
We have records to set, people! 

The Portuguese language is beautiful, the grammar is tough (eight conjugations, verb moods, endless irregular verbs!), but damn if it doesn’t make me want to keep getting better at it and someday be fluent. (Kind of an Emory theme.)

Learning the native language of Brasil isn’t a bad idea, you know, because it’s approaching the fifth largest GDP in the world. These are things you think about when you’re a political science major. 

 

Now that that’s done, I have two more finals left. 
I’ll be officially “done” at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 9th.
School’s out — forever. 
Theoretically.

I’m not sure I’m ready to write my complete reflection post on college yet, since I’m still in the process of decompressing both mind and body. I’ve taken notice to a lot of the habits I’ve picked up over the past four years lately, which have become deeply embedded at this point. Things like always having to know what’s on my to-do list for the day, feeling rather bum-ish if I’m not up and dressed by 10 a.m., the deeply unsettled feeling when all my work is complete and I’m left with free time, noticing the absence of my backpack when I’m not wearing it. Little things.

But, I’m mainly waiting to write that post because I want to pay homage to the enormous intellectual evolution I’ve had during my undergraduate years too. Rife with themes like pushing my limits, overcoming the odds and pulling off the near impossible. Stories I want to tell about community, and individualism, and humming to my own beat. Anecdotes about the constant, daily, Sisyphus-like climb toward good, better, and then best.

I also want to talk about what’s next for me and what I want to create for myself in the next two years at Georgetown. What kinds of bars I’ll set for myself, how I want to organize and own my work, and what types of people I want to observe or get in front of in DC. I’ve seen small glimpses of what I’d like to make there, but this summer is going to be an excellent opportunity to clarify it. 

And walk in with a plan of attack :]

Is this the part where I play that Vitamin C graduation song? 
Hm.  

Since I’m in a list-making mood, here are some things I am excited for in the very near future:

* Adding fun little plans to my Pinterest board, appropriately titled “Verão”. 
* Leaving my exam on Wednesday in a stupor. 
* Getting a new Macbook (thank you in advance, Mom and Dad!) 
* Walking across the stage on graduation day.
* Going to the Sundial to celebrate and seeing the entire city from a bird’s eye view.
* The chocolate pretzels I’m going to destroy this weekend while studying for the last time ;) 

Tchau,

Amanda