Pieces of Paper

I've always heard people talking about their various college degrees as "useless" or "wallpaper" or something else to infer that their four years of school were just a gigantic waste of time and beer money. But after years of books and public speaking and almost as many years of a hiatus due to huge obstacles I never thought I'd get through - I don't think I could ever look at this lovely document as a useless piece of paper:


After I got my diploma, I checked the mail every single day hoping for the one I wasn't sure I'd get - my teaching certificate. With two DUIs on my record, the state of Pennsylvania could very well have said, "sorry about your luck".

But they didn't.


And then, last week, it all paid off:


Okay, so it's just substituting. It's not really even that much money. But it's something that puts me one step closer to where I want to be. And that's just awesome.

Bye bye, apron and name tag. I surely will not miss you.