After a full semester of intense work and endless complaints, I finally get some reward for it all. However, I’m hesitant to say “hard work pays off.” It does, for sure, but not always in the way that you want it to be. The lessons I learned freshman year will stay in my mind forever. It’s not enough to just try hard and give it all you have, to succeed, you actually have to know your limits. Sure, it’s great to test your limits and stretch it a little especially when you are still growing. But like creating a good investment portfolio, you have you have to know how to balance the risks. The best results, or the greatest success, come from a combination of hard work, gamesmanship, and luck. To disregard any one of them is to be blind to some parts of reality. These are the lessons Duke has taught me so far, and I plan to take them with me to law school and beyond.

P.S. I have finally recovered to the GPA I started out with (and a little above), but I don’t think it’s possible to graduate cum anything. Oh well At least I’ll have 1-2 honor’s thesis(es)…

finally done (sort of, minus law apps >.<).

Home is great, minus the cold and lack of friends. Loves sleeping in my soft, comfy queen size bed again, with two big blankets 🙂 Too I can’t really roll around and use the space to its full potentil; everywhere I move to is freezing >_>. Anyways, yesterday consisted of finishing up thesis chapter, rushing to the airport (first time I saw such a big line at RDU, and it was 53oam, ironic much?), walking the full length of ATL’s baggage claim area twice because I walked to the wrong end for MARTA, got home after 9am (my plane took forever to take off…must be there were dozens of flights scheduled at 6am, who knew there were so many early birds), ate yummy food, napped for four hrs, ate again, and was a bum for the rest of the evening.

I love long sentences. Oh, it’s also cool to receive four packages within 24 hours. Yay 🙂

Pictures of new dress coming up soon.

Is it me or did this semester fly by in a blink of the eye? Maybe that is always the case with fall semesters. I still feel like I just started school two weeks ago and I have less than two weeks left. But winter is in the air, and that means Christmas is quickly approaching. My family isn’t traditional about most things, and that includes xmas, but I still love all the holiday sentiments around.

I’m looking forward to:

• digging out my thick sweaters for those cold january days
• being home for four full weeks and finally seeing friends and Dad for the first time in a YEAR
• parties and shopping
• minimal to no work…at last.