Entries for May 2006
Saying Goodbye
Well, it's official now. I am no longer a student of Case Western Reserve University. Instead, I am an alumna, an aerospace engineer with honors. My dorm room is bare now: only a few items remain to be packed tomorrow morning. And then I'll drive away from Cleveland with no idea when I'll be back.
It's been a crazy weekend. On the one hand, it's very exciting to graduate and process and don a morterboard--but at the same time the prospect of saying goodbye to so many friends and faculty is depressing beyond belief. I've been cartwheeling between enthusiastic and maudlin since I handed over the last of my research to Dr. White on Thursday. Now that I have my diploma in hand and no more commencement events to look forward to, I have to say that we've taken a definite turn toward the maudlin.
So here's to four years that brought me friends, and knowledge, and challenges; to four years full of laughter, and stress, and learning; to four years in which I learned about who I am and about the person I'd like to become; to four lovely springs and four bitter winters of walking across an ever-changing campus; to the four years of Hundert's reign; and to the best four years of my life thus far.
Goodbye, Case--though perhaps only for now--and thank you.
Feynman and Other Geekery
Earlier this year, I took "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" with me on one of my graduate school visits and had a terrific time reading it on the Rapid and in the airport. I got so wrapped up in the life and thoughts of Richard Feynman that I hardly realized when I'd arrived. Today I came across a documentary with him, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out on Google Video. For anyone with fifty minutes to spare--finals end today, right?--I highly recommend it.
In other geeky news that I managed to miss while worrying about finals, one of my childhood idols, Eileen Collins, has announced that she is retiring from the space shuttle program.