I graduated last night!!! It was awesome. I feels somewhat surreal actually, having worked so hard for so long and to have finally reached this point. If I think about it, I wanted a PhD since 1992- so that is 14 years, almost half of my life! Of course back then I wanted it in Psychology- and was even enrolled in a Psychology PhD program for most of a year before deciding that was not the field for me. One Masters in Biology and 5 years later -bam. To graduate in the field of Ecology from UC Davis is somewhat unreal as well. Particularly since it was just ranked by US News and Reports as the #1 graduate program in ecology and evolution. To give you some perspective, Harvard was #3! Soon I'll be off doing the post-doc thing, and perhaps before I realize it actually realize my dream of becoming a professor. A proud day for sure. The best part of the whole ceremony was right after I was "hooded" I looked up to see Lucas in the stands and he pointed at me. Weird how being a dad puts a whole different perspective on things...