Farewell Dear Friends...

As a Graduate student staring down the long, dark corridor to graduation, I am reflecting on the experiences of the last two years and recalling a poster someone bought me many years ago.

At the time, I thought the poster was humorous as I watched the Three Stooges almost religiously on television. However, I did not fully understand the poster's message until now.

Following graduation in December of 2008 with my B.A. in Communication, I was naively optimistic about finding employment in an economy that got flushed down the toilet and is still struggling to resurface. I will graduate May 5 with a M.A. in English. This time I am truly optimistic about starting a career and not simply just finding a job. I will be re-released into the world armed with a new skill-set that will provide me with more opportunities for success that were unavailable several years ago. However, the education I received did not come from the classroom, the countless hours reading page after page of seemingly useless literature, or from lengthy research papers. Instead, I was baptized by fire by my mentor, Dr. Martina Harris, in the School of Nursing. She has given me an unlimited amount of room to hone my strengths, recognize my weaknesses, and learn new things. I am reminded of the quote: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever." At the hands of Dr. Harris, I will never go hungry.

I can only hope all of you have similar experiences and find yourselves working with someone like Dr. Harris who is willing to take you under her wing and give you the tools necessary to negotiate the hairpin turns of the winding road of life.

In the meantime, farewell dear friends. It has been a bumpy ride, but a necessary one. Good luck in your future endeavors.