All done.

Here I am, it's eleven months later, & I'm finished with school. It amazes me to look back a year ago & think about how much everything has changed since then. I knew it would go by quickly, but I really felt like the last few weeks were in sped-up time, rushing toward me all blurry.
Because the program is only complete after you go to school for 1500 hours (& not, say, for a certain number of days or whatever), I had to go to school on Tuesday for 2 hours & 15 minutes. It was my birthday that day, too, but I wasn't really thinking about that (which isn't really like me: I've been known to put up countdown calendars to my own birthday) because getting done with school was so much bigger. They didn't give me any clients that morning, so I just wandered around. My last client at school was on Friday. She was getting a relaxer (the last one I had to do) & had nearly waist-length hair. The relaxer wasn't so hard to do, but contending with all her hair did make it a little challenging. Then I blew it out straight which took about an hour & a half. It really was a lot of hair. I was telling her about my upcoming cross-country trip & she asked if I was good at driving through the night. I said no, not really (though Adam is). About mid-way through her blowout, she said, "If you can do this, you can drive all night." Not true, but nice of her to say so anyhow.
It was strange saying good-bye to everyone that morning, as it always is when you leave a job or school. And strange because they're all still there: Michelle, Sunshine, Amber (Mercedes graduated just before I did, having missed no days at all), doing what we've all done every day, it's just that I'm not there anymore. They'll all be done in about a month & I'll go back for their graduations. I don't know if these friendships will last. They were built mainly on the fact that we were all in the same building all day long. I like to think we'll stay in touch, but I know that out in the real world, we have almost nothing in common. Still, though, I will try to stay in contact with at least the four of them. Obviously it was more than just proximity that made us friends or I would have had the same level of friendship with every single person there.
I'm going to leave this blog up, though this is the last post I'll do. I am going to disconnect it from my Facebook account so I can friend people from school now (they all pestered me about it all the way through school & it became a joke that I turned down everyone's requests).
I'm one of the lucky few leaving school with a job lined up: starting May 24 (after I get back from our trip), I'll be at DB Sutton & Co in Chapel Hill. I am beyond! excited! to be starting work! So come find me there! Looky, here's the website: http://www.dbsutton.com/) I am also lucky in that everyone who works there is super spiffy & nice & talented & supportive. Truly, I won the jackpot on this one.
So, I guess that's it. I don't really know how to end this except to thank you readers out there. I've never done this before & it was always nice & fun & interesting to get your comments & know that someone was out there reading all this. I've enjoyed writing it, though I was dreadfully slack about it most of the time, & I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Can it really be?

I had my last full day of school on Friday. It's hard to believe that I really am pretty much done. I'll be at my internship tomorrow & then two hours and fifteen minutes of school on Tuesday & then...that's it!
It's been a hectic last few weeks. I was moved into a small room with only eight stations that the school decided to run more as a salon: people could make appointments to see us, we were expected to complete our appointments within a certain amount of time, & there was less supervision from the teachers. In the rest of the school, you're required to get an instructor at the beginning of the service to get their guidance & then they check your work at the end (&, depending upon how experienced you were & what you were doing, they may have been there at least periodically through the service). In the little room, you started on your own & the end-check was minimal. It was an experiment; we were the first group to do this. I think it worked well, especially in terms of what they wanted to achieve, which was to get us more used to have one client after another.
It was a hectic rush to get all my requirements done. You have to do a perm or relaxer on 20 clients & we just don't really get that many. The school ran a lot of specials to get clients in &, with the help of a Jheri curl (!!!) that I did on Thursday (which got me signed of for a perm and a relaxer), I finished everything by noon on Friday. Now I'm just putting in my last few hours.
I had my graduation on Friday. To call it a graduation or a ceremony is giving it more weight than I guess it really warrants. At 8:30, we have roll call. Every morning, all 70 or so students who are on the floor (not in the freshman room) crowd into the small classroom at the back of the building. Depending on who is calling roll, it can take anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes. When there's a graduation, it happens back there after roll call. This week, I was the only graduate. I asked Adam to come (which ended up being logistically difficult & it's only thanks to Amy Ruth & her generosity with her car that we were both able be there!) so the two of us were at the back of the room together when my name was called on the roll & everyone clapped & cheered for me, which was really nice. Then at the end of roll call, they said there was a graduate & that it was me. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I am terrified of public speaking. I mean heart-pounding, palm-sweating, dizzy, fuzzy-vision-type terror. But I knew that I had things I wanted to say so I had been secretly practicing them in the hope that I'd be able to get through it. They announced what my superlative was (everyone gets one) & as I let go of Adam's hand & headed to the front of the room, I heard them say, "Most Consistent Student!" And I thought, man, that's a boring one. I mean, it's good to be consistent, but...yawn. Then I got to the front & they handed me the certificate that said Most Artistic Student. Better, less boring, & what I consider to be the Weird Girl Award. I think they give it to the students who maybe they don't quite know what to make of. Like, artistic = odd. So, ok! That's good! Then a few of my teachers kinda awkwardly said a few things about me & then it was my turn. And I was so nervous! Gah! But I tried to pull myself together & make my little speech. And I did! Without fainting! And I thanked everyone, especially Adam (which was the main reason I wanted to say anything at all). I don't really remember what I said. It's all very fuzzy. Adam tells me I blew a kiss to the room at the end, which I guess would either seem sweet or a bit dotty. Artistic, maybe. And then I was done speaking & all I could see was Adam there at the back of the room, everyone else really was just a faceless blur. So I went straight to him. And that was the end of graduation. The whole thing from start to finish was maybe ten minutes, if that. I wish I could remember better what I said, but I really don't. A few people said it made them get teary, so maybe it was good! Some of my friends had gotten me a cake & balloons & things like that, so we had a little celebration later on, after I finished my last relaxer (possibly ever).
I really can't believe it's all over & that after Tuesday morning at 10:45, I won't be going back there anymore.