APU Careers & Learning

Celebrate Your Achievements

rewarding-school-successBy IdV
Online Learning Tips, Special Contributor

Getting a certificate or a degree is a major achievement. If you are like me, you might not even realize you’re finished until you are about to put on your cap and gown and walk at your graduation ceremony. I was so focused on sticking to my plan of completing my master’s that I forgot to reward myself and thus missed opportunities to give myself some courage along the way. Rewarding yourself is important: it helps acknowledge milestones and works as a motivation booster. Whether it is after a difficult course, or after a series of overlapping courses, at the middle of your degree completion, or when you only have a few classes left; take a moment to acknowledge where you are and what you have done so far even if the path to get where you are has been a difficult one.

As for the final celebration of walking across the stage at commencement, I would highly recommend it to anybody. First, the location for the commencement ceremonies at APU is gorgeous (for the last few years it was at the Gaylord Hotel in the National Harbor just outside of Washington, D.C.). Secondly, my school, American Public University, really makes an effort to celebrate its graduates by having an elaborate cocktail hour the night before the ceremonies. They also provided an alumni gift, and they strive to provide a well-organized experience for both graduates and their families. Finally, I won’t lie; having a discounted rate at the hotel is just one more reason to make a week-end out of it and continue the celebration well after you have walked with your fellow graduates.

That day it finally dawned on me that what had become part of my routine life in the last 18 months was a true achievement, because like most of my fellow graduates I am not your traditional college student, fresh out of high school. I have a full-time job and a family to take care of. So, re-organizing my life to make time for studying towards a degree was no small achievement. I might not have realized it until it was done, but I am hoping that you will.

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