and three years later...

I submitted my thesis today. On the bus ride home tonight I couldn't help but think of all the ups and downs over the past three years -- everything from taking the GRE 3.5 times to calling my mom and sister in tears because I thought maybe I made a mistake...especially because I couldn't find a good Tex-Mex restaurant in DC. I kept saying that I couldn't wait to be on the other side of all of this and see how it all turned out. Well I'm not completely on the other side -- mainly, because I'm not sure we ever are -- But what a great feeling.

Before I left my old job, a person I worked with in Japan gave me a daruma doll as a good luck present. They're little Japanese wish dolls with big white eyes -- you fill in one eye when you start a goal (or wish) and fill in the other when it comes true. When I moved to DC, I made sure it had a special spot in the U-haul (with my makeup and jewelry, of course). And when I was settled into my new place and about to start at Georgetown I filled in one of the eyes.

Tonight, I'm going to fill in the other eye.

And I'm also going to have a nice glass of wine with Laura -- quite appropriate since she came to visit DC with me almost three years ago when I decided to come.

So cheers to a daruma doll with two eyes.