It's high time I razed the walls . . .

As I began my blog (and grad school) back in August 2005, I wrote about taking the big leap:

So I have moved on -- to study something that I am interested in (Literature and Film) and see where this new path takes me. I may go on to my Ph.D., or I may go back to teaching high school, or some other possibility may present itself. I like (and am simultaneously terrified by) the idea that my future, at age 32, has still not been determined.

Then, at the end of my first year, I revisited that blog post, and I had this to say:

Academically, grad school has been good for me. NIU is by no means the most challenging or elite of schools, but I have had some excellent professors and some very interesting classes. I have developed some new academic interests (film theory, urban studies), and I have broadened and deepened previous academic interests (pop culture, 20th Century literature).

So, now I have finished grad school. I have my Master's degree (though I did miss my own graduation to go to the wedding in Minnesota).

So here are some reasons leaving my job and going to school was the right decision for me:

• I have learned a lot.
• I have developed into an even better writer.
• I have exercised my research skills, which were beginning to atrophy.
• I have made new friends.
• I have had a lot of fun.
  
• I rediscovered, by way of absence, why I love teaching.
• I will be moving to Chicago to start an exciting new job.
• I have discovered the importance of stepping stones. My time in Minnesota is a part of me, and my time in DeKalb is a part of me, and I could not be moving on to the next step without either these previous steps.
• I looked before I leapt. But I did indeed leap.

I am so excited about what lies ahead for me. I get to live in Chicago and I get to be a teacher. It is very cheesy to say this, I realize, but I really feel like I have a new world in front of me.