FINAL - ly

This evening I took my last final exam as an undergraduate. The exam, for my U.S. Naval and Maritime History class, evolved in a rather interesting way. My exam was scheduled for 7 pm this evening, which was great because it gave me an extra hour to get from work to campus. This morning when we woke up, the weather report was not good, so Lori and I drove in together, dropping James off at daycare like we normally do when I don't have class. When I have class, we usually drive separately, but I don't trust the Honda on the icy roads as much as we trust the all-wheel drive of the Subaru, so we drove in together. Having the final exam scheduled for 7 pm would still allow us time to pick James up from daycare and then for me to drop Lori and James off at home before preceding to campus. Or so we thought....

As the day progressed, the weather followed the prediction and turned bad around mid-afternoon. Traffic in Morgantown ground to a standstill, and stayed that way until well after our quitting time at work. As we left work, we had to opt for going a different direction than normal, thus taking a much longer route, to avoid the heavy traffic, but even so, our route was still slow going. Knowing that I would not be able to make it to campus on time for my final, I called my professor and left him a message to say that I would be late, but that I would make it to class for the exam.

It took an hour and ten minutes to get to daycare to pick James up. By this time, traffic had thinned out and was moving at a much better pace than earlier. As we were approaching the exit to drop Lori and James off at home, my professor returned my call. I explained that the road conditions were not bad, but that traffic had held me up and I would be on my way shortly. My professor, understanding the situation, told me NOT to come to campus for my final, but to email him when I got home and he would email my final to me. I did, and I was able to take my final from home.

For anyone who knows me, knows how hard I have worked to get through school and also knows how I hold myself to a high standard. Upon receiving the email from my professor with the exam, I replied with the time I recieved it and promised that I would return the completed exam within a specified amount of time to be fair to everyone else in the class. And I did. It was a rather hard exam. The exam consisted of a section of identification and a section of 4 LONG essays. Being I had to return the exam by email, I was forced to type the exam. I do not type as quickly as I write, and I am sure my spelling and grammar were atrocious, but I succeeded. At approximately 9:15 PM, I finished my exam and returned it by email to my professor. After six years (working full-time and going to school 3/4 time), my undergraduate career has come to an end. On Saturday, I will walk across the stage to receive my "degree" (an empty envelope - degrees are mailed out in January) and say good-bye to alma mater.