Focused Friday: Graduation

Today is a huge day for me.  It's my graduation day!!!   I am graduating from college today with my masters degree. 

And it isn't just any masters degree.  It's the one I have always wanted to get, but I thought I wasn't capable.  I am now officially a counselor.  Or at least I will be in a few hours.  Technically I won't have my license for a few weeks even, but you know what I mean :-)


And I am the first one in my family to get a master's degree.  (If you don't count my incredibly smart sister-in-law who has her MD and PHD.)  But I'm just counting my family of origin.

This is the most focused I have ever been.  I stayed focused for 2 1/2 years in order to get to this goal.  How does someone with ADHD do that?  I think for me it goes back to when I was a little kid.  My mom made us kids eat our vegetables every night for dinner.  And there was no getting out of it.  I don't remember how she made us do this (I certainly have not been able to pass this onto my own kids), but the vegetables were to be eaten.  I did not care for vegetables.  So I came up with a strategy.  It was really complicated, here goes....I ate them first.

How is that a strategy and why does it pertain to graduation?  I'm glad you asked.  It's a strategy because I figured if I had to eat them anyhow I would rather get it over with and end my meal with something I liked such as mashed potatoes, rather than dreading the veggies the whole meal and having to end my meal with them.


How this pertains to graduation is how I got through school.  I knew I had to do the homework and the studying, I wasn't getting out of it if I wanted a good grade in the class.  So I always jumped in and worked as hard as I could during the week so I could have fun and play on the weekend.  As soon as something was assigned I tackled it.  I figured I was going to have to do it anyway, so I could put it off and stress it for a few weeks, or I could get it done.

The other factor that helped me get through school is I was getting a degree in something I really liked.  I enjoyed most (not all, a few were terribly boring) of my classes.  And I knew if I could get school out of the way as quickly as possible I would be able to do what I enjoyed which is being a counselor.


So now my vegetables are eaten and it's time for me to get to the mashed potatoes.  But first I must wear the incredibly flattering cap and gown and wait for my name to be called to be handed a piece of paper that isn't really my diploma. 

And being a master's graduate I also get to wear this cool cape. 

Perhaps I get super powers with that fake diploma piece of paper thingy.  Hmmm...what super power would I like to have?  I wonder if I get to choose.

The Art of Saying Thank You

My oldest daughter graduated from high school about six weeks ago.

We were very proud of her and did what most parents of graduating seniors do...we sent out graduation announcements. These weren't just your ordinary announcements, we painstakingly sorta custom designed them and had them printed.

 They were extra special because Coleen from coleenhauthphotography.com took her senior pictures. (Coleen is not paying for this endorsement...I just think she is super awesome.) Coleen almost moved to Alaska recently and I was panicked about how I was going to be able to afford a trip to Alaska for our family pictures. But she isn't moving to Alaska so all is well for me.

Sorry, ADHD tangent...back to graduation. So we sent out the announcements and several really thoughtful people sent my daughter graduation gifts.

Immediately I let her know that she would need to send out thank you notes because I figure if people are kind enough to take the time to send you a gift the least you can do is send a thank you note right?

My daughter of course agreed that it would be a good thing to do.  A couple weeks later I asked if she had sent the notes. She replied, "Oh not yet, I forgot." So I went a step further and gave her a stack of thank you notes with envelopes and let her know where the stamps were.

A week or so later I noticed the cat had thrown up on the stack of untouched thank you notes that were still sitting on the counter.

I immediately got mad at both the cat and my daughter. I had handmade those notes...how dare he puke on them? And if the notes had already been written then they wouldn't be sitting on the counter for the cat to expel his lunch upon.

So I cleaned up the mess, found some new clean thank you notes and let my daughter know these notes were to be written today. I got a text at some point during the day asking who she needed to write to. When I got home from work I saw that she had written about 1 1/2 notes. As a reference she only has to write four notes so she is close to half done with the writing at this point.

Once again I reminded her the notes needed to be written and a few days later she was able to finish the other 2 1/2 notes. Fantastic I thought...thank you notes are done. I put them out of mind until this morning when I was eating breakfast...I saw all four notes hiding under some papers on the table.

So to our wonderful friends and family who sent graduation gifts, the notes are written, they really are...they might get sent out before she graduates from college. But then again...no promises.