I have been granted the rank of Master (unlike Anakin)!

Reflecting on my academic journey I am filled with a mix of emotions: Pride, excitement of being finished, a touch of nostalgia, and being a bit at a loss. The last two years have consumed an enormous chunk of my life, and I find myself not knowing what to do with my free time. I’ve had a routine, and now it’s suddenly over. This adjustment period is strange, to say the least.

On May 4th, the hubs and I flew to Orlando to meet my parents who had driven down the day before. They thankfully picked us up and we all headed to Ocala to meet up with my aunt and uncle who also made the trek down to Florida on the 4th. Once everyone was in Ocala, we did a little bit of wandering. I found a great gluten-free bakery that was really reasonable and REALLY delicious (Soleil Bakery and Social House)! I bought a LOT of pastries to get me through the week. After that, we all went to dinner, hung out for a while, and just decompressed.

May 5th was the day of the recognition ceremony. In the morning we had breakfast and then hung out by the pool. I then sent the hubs off to Target to pick up a travel steamer as I showered and did my hair and makeup because the iron in the hotel was not cutting it and I didn’t want to melt my gown. As time went on I got a little more and more nervous – I sent the grown-ups (yes that’s what I call the older fam) off to lunch because I knew they would definitely need to eat before the ceremony. I snacked and ate some of the gluten-free treats that I had picked up the day before. After lunch we all pile into the vehicles and head up to Gainesville so we can do a little bit of exploring of the campus (Bookstore!) before lineup at 5:30. I picked up a t-shirt, scrunchie, and a pair of shorts at the bookstore because it was M O I S T, and I knew I’d be in desperate need of changing after the ceremony. I actually ended up throwing the shorts on under my dress because the chub rub was otherwise going to get real. No amount of body glide was surviving that heat + humidity.

The ceremony itself was great – aside from the heat. They had the master’s degree candidates line up downstairs where the AC was severely lacking. All of us had frizzy hair by the time we made it out to the floor. *sigh* Can’t wait to see those official photos, let me tell you. But, it really doesn’t matter – we walked, we earned our degrees, and we all were there to celebrate. I was amazed at how many graduates there were in CALS this year (800 candidates total between all degrees). I’m pretty sure that is more than my ENTIRE undergraduate school’s commencement numbers when I walked in 2006. This was just for ONE college. Insane! The ceremony definitely took every bit of two hours, but thankfully we walked before the bachelor’s degree candidates.

On Monday we took a detour down to Cocoa Beach before heading to Orlando/Kissimmee. We were fortunate enough to be there on a day when there was a launch – Starlink satellites. The Starliner launch was scrubbed but before that Dad and I were so tempted to either stay there until launch time or drive back over from Kissimmee. It was cool to get back to the Atlantic again, and seeing the launch pads from the beach was something else. We stayed a little while (aunt and uncle decided to stay longer) and we drove closer to Cape Canaveral before heading to the house. We hit up the store for a few groceries then prepped for the insanity of Walt Disney World to come.

It is now done. The ceremony, the trip, and it is time to adjust to a new normal. By the way, I now specifically have a Master of Science in Microbiology and Cell Science, with a concentration in Medical Microbiology and Biochemistry – say that five times fast.

“Hey Patch, you just earned your Master’s degree. What are you going to do next?”

I’M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

And go to Disney World we did. First thing was first – getting up at the asscrack of dawn to get ready, and then the hubs and I refreshing to get that oh-so-coveted virtual queue for TRON. There was NO WAY I wasn’t getting Dad and Mike on it! The boarding group was acquired and we headed to the “Most Magical Place on Earth”! Dad hates Magic Kingdom btw, but I had booked castle photos in my regalia so I convinced the parental units to go. 🙂

Once we got to the park, I rented a locker and threw my regalia in until it was photo time. Talk about a mad dash. We went over to Tomorrowland and hit up TRON. Mom really liked it, too – even if she had never seen the films. Then Mike and I hauled ass back to the locker to pick up the regalia, as it was almost photo time. We made sure they found a shady spot to hang out and we rejoined them with the garb. The photos were amazing. While it was hot and sweaty, I LOVE that I got to have photos with my family by the castle. Next up was lunch for the parents while we threw everything back in the locker, and then it was time for Space Mountain. I will die on this hill, but Space Mountain at WDW sucks compared to Disneyland. I’m going to go ahead and just call SM at DWD “Space Matterhorn”, but somehow worse. That’s a one-and-done kind of ride for me.

Mom unfortunately wasn’t feeling well after (heat mostly), so we ended up taking her back to the house. We got some lunch and then headed back out. Dad is a champ – he “suffered” through Magic Kingdom (for the third time) and we stayed until pretty much closing. We rode everything except Seven Dwarves mine train and the Fantasyland rides (suck it MK, DL has better ones anyway). We ate chili dogs for dinner (RIP everyone in the house that night), had snacks, and had a great time. We also rode the freakin’ PEOPLEMOVER, which is by far the best ride (don’t come for me). In fact, we rode it around twice. I mean, why not? It was a pretty great day, and we still had a couple of days to go.

Wednesday was EPCOT! My aunt joined us this time, which was great because I knew exactly which rides she could and could not ride (severe motion sickness) and I told her that EPCOT would be her best bet! So we rode a LOT. The first thing of course was waking up to get a boarding group for Guardians (for everyone but Auntie), and the hubs came in clutch and got us boarding group 2! We took our time getting to the park that morning, but it was seriously a great day. While it did get hot during the middle of the day, it wasn’t very crowded and there were a lot of places to sit and cool off.

After Guardians we all went and rode Spaceship Earth, then to Nemo. Unfortunately, my mom hadn’t fully recovered from the heat the day prior, so we had to get her to first aid to cool off and hydrate. She was able to come back out in a chariot with Dad and ride some rides before we all headed to Space 220 for dinner. EVERYONE loved Space 220 and our server was fantastic. She made sure everyone was able to be accommodated concerning food allergies (mom) and gluten (me). I think we all actually ended up getting the filet as our main course, but to be fair, it is quite good. Since we had dinner reservations at 8pm, we didn’t get finished until well after 9 (park close). It was surreal walking through the empty park with Spaceship Earth all lit up. I think everyone agrees that EPCOT is our favorite park. By the way, the only person who had been to EPCOT previously was Dad (back in the 80s) and myself (February). However, I had barely seen any of the World Showcase because we mostly stayed in the Celebration area. While with my auntie we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour, Living with the Land, and watched napped through The American Adventure. Back over at World Celebration, we rode Living with the Land and Journey Through Imagination with Figment.

Thursday we shifted our plans around a little bit and went to Animal Kingdom – none of us had ever been and mom really wanted to go there, so that’s exactly what we did. We rode the safari and checked out all of the animals, then did the walking trail at her pace. We knew we wouldn’t spend a ton of time as she still needed to recover from the prior days, and we were not going to let her tough it out. We left at the right time and went back to the house. We had lunch, and then Dad, Mike, and I all headed to Hollywood Studios. We first watched Muppet*Vision 3D, then rode Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Dad loved that one! Especially the part w/ Daisy and then ending up in the first car by the end of it. After that, we headed over to Batuu to ride Rise of the Resistance, then stopped at Docking Bay 7 for some great AC and a snack for me. Then it was time to ride Smuggler’s Run before heading to our Oga’s reservation. By that time it was getting late-ish, so we booked it to Slinky Dog Dash, which was great, before heading back up toward the front to get on Tower of Terror about 5 minutes before Fantasmic! started. After that, the park was closing. I will say though, we did A LOT.

Mad props to my Dad who was not only able to hang with “the kids”, but honestly could have probably done more. Dad goes into Beast Mode when on vacation. He did say that it may have taken 21 years, but I finally paid him back for dragging us all around Tampa and Orlando when we were actual kids. 🙂 Check him out on Slinky Dog Dash just sitting there like he’s watching TV. CHAMP.