Graduation

If there are a few moments in my life when I can't help crying and hard to forget. This must be one of them. On March 14th, I said "good bye" to my group members and my advisor, Jim. This moment marks a point where I finally head out the ivory tower and walk into the real world. Yes, I graduate with my Ph.D. finally!

It's not an award or anything worth bragging, but finishing my degree reminds me of the oscar. Every time an award winner walk onto the podium and have to say something, he or she typically starts with "I want to thank...". I always thought it's a routine thing, hardly from the heart. It turns out, I was wrong.

I experienced such a moment last week, when I finished the defense and finally deposited my thesis. The format-checking guy in the thesis office put a stamp on my thesis, and said to me: "congratulation, you are a doctor now!" I walked out of the office, unreacted, but when I walked outside,
and saw a bunch of undergrads on the quad, I felt something profound has happened in my heart. I realized, I am not longer a student. From the elementary school to graduate school, I have always been a student. It's like I have been a student for my whole life. It doesn't feel good when someone strip the right off me in a sudden.

Being at school it's not an easy task, to many people. I am one of those lucky guys who can survive, or even kind of enjoy school for such an extended period of time. Not because I am smart. Some people still consider us a loser for getting a phd. I am just an average person. It's because, and now I know that, I have never been alone. There are always people who love me, support me and are willing to help me. My parents, my sister, my girlfriend are people who are always there when I need them. My advisor, Jim, has been the best teacher I have ever met. I learned tremendously from the members in my group, and from the great staff in the MRL. These people have shaped me, and I owe who I am to all of them. I now understand that those oscar winners might not be pretending to thank somebodies. It's simply an impluse from everyone's soul that, when you have achieved something great, you think of those who made this possible.

I am going to open a new chapter in my life. I hope my blog can be updated more regularly and more frequently, so that you, the invisible readers, can see how I evolve, and witness the ups and downs in my life. Do leave a comment if you are there. Don't you hate being invisible all the time:)