Since January of 2025, I have not been able to watch the news. I used to watch them the next morning while I prepared my breakfast. Nowadays, I get my news in the key of humor from the late-night hosts: Colbert, Myers, and Kimmel.
Jimmy Kimmel does this joke at the beginning of every month, where they show all the news anchors incredulously welcoming in the new month: “Can you believe it’s February?” and so forth every month.
Well, can you believe it has been 10 years since I got my PhD? I can’t!
While it has flown by, a lot has happened. I went back to teaching (and coaching) high school, mostly because I love the energy of youth, and secondly, I guess, because it was my comfort zone. Then I moved back to Spain, started teaching at the university level at the European School of Economics in Madrid, and found that college-level students’ maturity was just as enriching as that of high school kids. I founded my tour company, Tonxo Tours. Returned to Florida six years ago to continue teaching (and coaching!).
But those four years in Chapel Hill were marvelous. Granted, I have never worked so hard in my life, but that is part of why I enjoyed it so much; I had a mission, and that gave me clarity of mind and focus.
I loved Chapel Hill, the community I was able to build: my academic group, professors, my amazing dissertation director, Prof. Gómez Castellano, classmates, and students. My volunteering community at the Ronald McDonald House, and of course, my social life at church, Zog’s, and even the Ackland Museum. They were four wonderful years that I celebrate.
I love going back to visit whenever I get the chance. Chapel Hill is home.
Now, looking back, I realize that in the madness of wrapping up, moving, starting a new job, etc., I never uploaded photos of my hooding ceremony. Well, ask no more! Voila!
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