This Saturday, I graduated from University of Wisconsin - River Falls with a B.S. in English (Creative Writing) and minors in Animal Science and Professional Writing. I also moved back to my hometown to save up some money and spend time with my family while I wait to hear back from the graduate schools I applied to. I am hoping to go on to receive my MFA in Creative Writing with the end goal of teaching at a university.

In the meantime, I am already missing all the amazing parts of my life I left behind when my time as an undergraduate student ended. First, I will miss the ADEPT program. Over the past 3.5 years, I had the opportunity to work with 7 amazing dogs. During this time, I learned all about service dog laws and how to be an advocate for service dogs and their handlers. Last summer, I even had the chance to see some of the dogs in our program graduate and be placed with their forever partners. I can say without hesitation that being a part of the ADEPT program was the highlight of my time as an undergraduate student. I looked forward to our classes every week, and I loved being able to share stories and laughter with this fantastic team. I am so honored to be a part of the PawPADs family; this experience has truly changed my life!

Second, I will miss my job at the Campus Information Desk. I loved my team and the experiences I had while working the desk and Student Involvement events. It was amazing to have the opportunity to interact with students, faculty/staff, and community members every single day. It is a special job that makes you look forward to going into work most days.

Third, I will miss my classes and professors. A large majority of my professors seemed to truly care about our success as students and as people in general, and without them, I couldn't have had the fantastic experience that I did. While I was sad to miss out on two years of in person classes, their ability to adjust their classes to fit their student's needs was astounding. I am hopeful that I will be back in a classroom again as a graduate student, but in the meantime, I will look back fondly on my undergraduate years.

Finally, I will just miss the community. My apartment was such a fun place to be, and I have lots of fond memories of hanging out with friends and my roommates there. The community was so close-knit and felt like home for the past four years. I will miss it all!

I am thankful to have Theo and Yuki to keep me company through this stressful but exciting time of my life, and I look forward to continuing to include dogs in my life forever even though my time as an ADEPT intern is over. I plan to stay in contact with PawPADs and would love to be involved in the organization again in some way or another. Until next time, stay pawsome!

It is almost the end of the semester which is a crazy concept because it feels like September 1st was only a couple weeks ago. Not only is the semester almost over, but that also means that my undergraduate career is almost over. I graduate on December 18th (less than two weeks from now!), so it is crunch time! Final projects are piling up alongside my graduate school applications. I am applying to a few MFA programs across the US, and it has definitely kept me busy polishing my writing samples and typing up a brand new Statement of Purpose for each university.

​I also found out not too long ago that I passed my exam to become a Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed (CPDT - KA) which is super exciting. I hope to take on a few clients once I move back to my hometown after graduation and also will be looking into teaching some group training classes if possible. Right now, training is going to be a part-time gig for me while I work toward a career in the writing industry, but I am super excited to get to have a foot in both of my passions!

Yuki has also gotten so big; she is now five months old and almost as tall as Theo! She is still just a little over 30 pounds, but she is definitely getting to be a tall, lanky teenager. Thankfully, I haven't been getting too much adolescent brain loss yet, but there have been a few occasions where her newfound teenage spirit has poked out from her typical perfect puppy demeanor. Namely, she now thinks barking at things outside the apartment is super fun, but we will work through that one. We have also been attending puppy class for the past five weeks which means that next week is graduation! I have been so impressed with Yuki's focus and temperament at our classes, and we both have had a lot of fun.

Oliver is also doing well. We made the decision a little while ago to have him spend a little less time on campus since he seemed to enjoy Public Access trips and being at home more than being on campus which has been good for him, I think. His confidence has been so much better, and he is generally just doing really well! The big ol' blockhead has definitely grown on me, and it is going to be tough saying goodbye in just a couple weeks.

Theo is also doing great. I feel like I don't talk about him a ton in my posts, and that is because he is just my solid boy. Since he is in his middle years, we have settled into our routine and not much new has been happening lately. I retired him as a Therapy Dog during the pandemic since we weren't going out anymore, so he has just been enjoying his life in retirement as my BFF and the rock I can rely on at any time. 

That is all I have for this post! Until next time, stay pawsome!