Flash back to Senior Year in College!

It was around this time last year I was working on my capstone for my senior class.  It was one of the most unhealthiest periods in my life, I think.  Talk about weeks of staying up till the wee hours of the morning, sometimes not even sleeping all night only to go to class at 9am.  Smoking a ton, working on a biggest paper of my university career.  Red Bulls, late night dinners the works, man!  Prior to this time, it sounds like an awesome night, just add beer and friends, instant party mix.  But no, it was often spent in front of a computer screen, getting all my sources, documentation, proofreading...more proofreading, typing etc etc.  This went on for maybe little more than a month. 

During this time, how I studied and how I wrote papers changed dramatically.  My old way of doing this just was  ineffcient.  I was disorganized and constantly having to find the same thing multiple times.  I would "study" but I would spend more time making sure I was comfortable and had plenty of stuff to drink, rather than actually studying!  By the end, I had improved my habits. I was worlds better at keeping track of stuff and where it would take me a night to finish...say...5 full pages, footnotes graphs and all.  I could do 10 with better quality by the end of the night.  Length isn't everything but my capstone paper from cover page to sources was well over 50 pages.  Our professors told us that they were treating this as a Master's level course.  They were honest, brutally honest, and did so in front of others.  We were being held accountable for our work and I will always thank them for that.

Well, after I defended my paper, it was a great great feeling.  Walking out of class that afternoon I remember walking to my truck with a feeling of superior accomplishment.  And I just sat!  I didn't really call anyone until maybe 15 minutes had past.  I enjoy sharing those feelings but at that point in time, I wanted to be mine.  Sure, my college career took a lot of u-turns, wrong ways, road blocks and stalled traffic.  But, it was finally done.  That was almost exactly one year ago.