Introduction to a Tricenarian About to Graduate

I was part of the Indian Epics online class during the spring semester, and I wound up writing this introduction which really said almost nothing about me. This time, I'll try to give a bit more background!

Originally from the tiny town of Kemah in Texas, I migrated north to Oklahoma about five years ago. I celebrated my 30th birthday last week, which makes me the oldest undergraduate I've met yet in the OU system. I didn't have a lot of financial support early on, and I refused to take on any student loan debt, so I spent at least five scattered semesters taking only one class at a time if that was all that I could afford. I did grab an Associate's degree in general studies at community college early on, but that's about as useful as a spam email these days. Here and there I took a year off, simply because I was more comfortable working as a server/bartender/manager than forcing myself to settle on a career I wasn't completely sure of.

This is my last semester at OU as an undergraduate, as I am FINALLY graduating with my Bachelor's of Science in Microbiology this December. I'd always told myself of course I'd have my bachelor's before I turned 30, but the timing wasn't more than a few months off. While graduate school is the eventual goal, I'm debating whether to find a job in my field as an entry-level microbiologist. We will see what happens with the Great GRE Exam in a month's time, and I'll happily consider relocating to other parts of the US or Mexico if the right opportunity for future education or current employment presents itself.

My younger siblings and I (the oldest) were all homeschooled, and I'm happy to report they took much less time than I did to find their individual callings. My sister is a programmer, my brother is a nurse, and my youngest brother (he's 18 now) is finishing a degree in audio engineering while working as a night-cruise bartender/boat captain, and all of them still live in Kemah. I live far far away up by Lake Hefner here in Oklahoma, but we're extremely close and visit as often as humanly possible.

I've worked at a local Charleston's restaurant for the last 3 years, as I've found that serving provides the most fiscal return and schedule flexibility with the least amount of time invested, which is hugely important when commuting to OU daily and juggling an ever changing school schedule with an employer. It's a fun job with great coworkers, and I've made some wonderful friends. In fact, I just returned from a vacation in Cancun with one of them, and wow was that amazing! Brace yourself, because this is where the pictures come in! I've never actually been to Mexico before besides brief shoreside visits on a cruise, and I absolutely want to go back. This is how I spent the last of my summer, with my friends Kim and Kalli!

We visited Xel-Ha, an ecological park extension of Xcaret, a huge tourist attraction with many parks located in the Riviera Maya region in Quintana Roo, Mexico. I was standing on the 200-ft flexible bridge between the ocean and lagoon regions of the park, and I almost fell in trying to take this picture. 

It took about 20 minutes to walk up the stairs to access the "lighthouse" slide/tower seen in the background. Only took about 30 seconds to get down again! And the snorkeling was so much fun! We saw so many fish we lost count of the different species, and three enormous manta rays.

Our hotel had a swim-up bar/restaurant. Enough said about that. 

Kalli posed for me on the beach our last day there.

View from the pier on a cloudy day.

The iguanas have learned that people feed them treats if they do this dance. There were iguanas EVERYWHERE. And they were huge, some as large as 4 feet. 

Our hotel put on some ridiculously entertaining evening shows. The breakdancing was something I've never seen in person before, and it was amazing!

The fire show was my favorite, and even though my choice of seat was obscured, you could still feel the heat off the stage.

All photos and videos come from the author's personal collection, August 2018.