Color My Life With the Chaos of Trouble

Submitted my thesis. Basically done with undergrad. Feeling like a champ

Don't be scared of your size or the space you take up. You deserve to exist as much as anyone else does. It's ok to be fat.

Happy mother’s day to my mama & mama earth

So. Badass.

GET IT

I want this phrase tattooed somewhere

Today I presented my senior capstone, crushed my thesis presentation, and received the highest honor my department has to offer. Very rarely in my life do I stop and feel proud of myself, but today was one of those days. The amount of support I’ve received from my friends, family, and professors not only today but for the past 4 years is astounding and so rare. Seeing my parents absolutely beaming with pride made me want to burst into tears. I never thought I would achieve what I’ve achieved or become a scientist. But I have. At the end of my thesis presentation today I accidentally said “perhaps someday my technique will be used by ‘real’ scientists in future expeditions.” The only critique any of my professors had was- “You ARE a real scientist!” I am. And I am damn proud of myself. 

It was our last senior seminar today, and we did that thing where there’s a piece of paper with your name and everyone writes something. It was weird and hard and Candace started crying trying to write mine, which obviously made me cry. When I was reading over my paper, the one’s that touched me the most were Pat’s and Ben’s. Ben wrote, “You’re an extremely kind and caring person- I’ve come to know you very well over the past few years, and am a better person because of it.” Pat wrote “Your selflessness and willingness to put others before yourself is one of your strongest characteristics and most inspiring. I can’t wait to share our next adventure.” For two lovely dudes who don’t often verbalize their inner feelings, this meant the world to me that they wanted to let me know that. I’m so grateful for my geo family and am devastated at the thought of leaving them in just a few short weeks.