Another reminder that the end is near.

Anyone that knows Krista or I knows that Gator sports have become a big part of our lives. We attend every home football and men's basketball game and occasionally attend other sports as well (like women's basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, etc.) Last semester we were trying to graduate in the Fall and couldn't quite get things to work out. As a result, the last home football game didn't real feel like the last game to us. Tonight is the last home basketball game and we're kind of sad about it. It will likely be the last major sporting event we attend at UF as students. We are considering attending the NCAA gymnastics regional in April, but that sport is reasonably new to us (at least regular attendance is) and it has not become part of our routine. Tonight when we go to the O'Connell center, it will be to watch the Gators basketball team for the last time as students. It really is bringing home the idea of finality. That everything we have known for the last 2 decades is coming to an end. We will no longer be in school. It's hard to accept sometimes. This transition that is approaching is big. I know people do it all the time, but I suspect Ph.D.'s have a harder time with it because of the effort and devotion to school that is required to get out. Your research is a piece of you. No matter how much they tell you to see yourself as separate from your research, it will always contain a part of who you are because you directed everything from start to finish and you made the commitment. Graduating, in a way, involves walking away from that part of yourself. You can't take your work with you. Only experiences and whatever wisdom you could pick up along the way are able to go along for the ride (along with copies of Krista's lab books ;-). So as we transition out and begin to think of our new lives somewhere else, we are excited and we are sad. It doesn't happen easily. And tonight we get to experience a small part of what graduation will be about as we get to say good bye to one of the best experiences you can have while in school. That is the chance to identify yourself with something bigger. Thankfully, we have something much bigger than UF and the Gators to cling to. Christ as our savior and redeemer is our ever present help and is the only true source of identity we have and for that we are very thankful.