thank you, trees

i had my last final last night. i turned in my last academic paper last night. i turned in my key and my gradebooks, and took everything home from my cube. i thought i would do something really dramatic after FINALLY TURNING IN THE LAST PAPER, like start crying or cheering or run out of the building to thundering applause, but of course i didn't do any of those. i just left and walked out to my car in the parking deck for the last time. 

funny story: my professor, after reading through my rough draft on this paper, told me it was "PhD-level work" and encouraged me to submit it for publication. if only he knew how little effort i put into it and how little i care . . . he probably wouldn't have been so complimentary. if THIS is PhD-level work, i don't think i need to get a PhD. it was a pretty big load of junk.

also:

you probably can't see very well in this picture, but this stack of papers is almost as tall as the harry potter book next to it. these are all of the readings i've printed out for my classes and papers over the last two years. and it's all going in the recycling TODAY.

sorry, trees. i did my best: almost every single one of these is printed four pages to one page--double-sided and two on each side. so this stack should be four times as tall, really. phew.