Thank doG for my master's degree. No. Really.

Having officially, OFFICIALLY, wrapped up "Operation Earn a Master's Degree" with yesterday's graduation ceremony, I would like to publicly thank Barley Narr for not being the type of dog who seemingly never puts a paw out of place. Why? When Rachel Friedman Narr decided she and Barley would benefit from some training, they came to J9's K9s where I ended up as their teacher. (Work with me, here. It will make sense, soon.) I had just started my MA program and had no idea what I'd end up doing for my thesis.

In a funny coincidence, I later ran into Rachel outside of dog class, while covering an off-campus College of Ed event as a reporter for CSUN's Office of Marketing and Communications. I think that's when we friended each other on Facebook.

Maybe a semester later, while taking a social justice reporting class, I posted an open call for story ideas for what would be my final reporting project. Rachel posted a note about DEAF Project, I was immediately intrigued, and signed on to do the story. At the time, I had an alternate thesis project in mind, but was hugely impressed with what DEAF Project was doing, and ultimately pitched the idea of continuing my work with the organization to help boost its public relations effort. Not long after, the idea for the "Connected: Celebrating Families" retreat was born.

It took a village to bring the Connected retreat to life. Many, MANY wonderful people gave of their time and talent as presenters, volunteers, etc. Though my job was to keep most of the juggled balls safely up in the air throughout the six-month planning/implementation period, the retreat demanded a sizable commitment of time and effort on Rachel's part ... on top of her f/t teaching load. THANK YOU, Rachel, for supporting me throughout the idea, and for your willingness to help bring it to life. It brings me great joy to say that we made a heck of a team. :-)

Often, we have no idea where a new experience will take us. My MA experience wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but at the end of the day, I am happy to have reaffirmed a passion for non-profit PR; honored to have joined forces with the wonderful people of DEAF Project; excited that the experience prompted me to begin learning ASL (Thank you, Maria Vasquez-Low for the great start in your CSUN classes!); thankful for the friendships that were formed along the way; and proud of what we accomplished with the Connected retreat! It's simply not my style to have been nearly as happy with a purely research-based thesis. I'm a "creator" at heart and am thankful to have been given the opportunity to help create something meaningful.

G'boy, Barley Narr. G'boy.  ;-)