FRIENDS ARE FOREVER

Right after Christmas I saw some  friends who have been a support during my time of training. Some friends are forever, and others are for a certain period in our lives. This post is also written with my (now adult) children in mind, because they know them.

At my graduation party for my doctorate in the beginning nineties about 50 people from different periods in my life came together. But this bunch of four were my closest study friends. The girl on the left is the sister of the friend who lives now overseas.  My friends are much younger than I, since I started on my graduate work when I was 36 years old. The seated couple and I were then already married. I'm the redhead in the blue.

Midweek Blues hosted by Rebecca at http://thedustycellar.blogspot.com

Saw all of them back a few months ago, except for the gentleman on the top right. 
During my studies I was the only one who had children. Now they have the children and we have grand children. When we were in training, psychology was still known as a Caucasian  profession, but we were the international ones who started trickling in.

(The same couple as in the first pic) -
The last and biggest hurdle was my dissertation (since English is my second language) 
and I was fortunate to get her help  -

(a quick rundown: The role of non-academic variables in measuring the perception of success of Different Ethnic Groups of Graduate students -A questionnaire was sent to several graduate schools and statistical analysis was done on questionnaires of 600 graduate students).

with the statistical part of my dissertation, since I was not a computer- or statistical buff at that time (still am not:) ). Graduate school is an exercise of running through hoops, deadlines and team work .Finally got this published two years later (during this time that I came back to art - to keep myself sane, mostly!)

And this is how they are now. Have two little boys 
and are both teaching at the graduate school
they once studied at.

This was probably one of my closest friends when I was close to graduating (on my left in the first pic).  For a few years we got together for coffee at least once a month (since I had kids and was building a practice after my doctorate) to share our experiences as new professionals.
It's one thing to get one's doctorate, it's another to be in practice! 
I love helping people and help them giving strategies for change ( the ones who do not enjoy this, cannot not stay too long in this profession, for it takes all one's energy).  
I got to know her family (of origin) and she got to know mine.

This is how she looks now. 

Later she married a journalist  and because they live overseas now, they  were the reason I met my friends  from the past. Seeing them all back was emotional and exhilarating at the same time. 

Did we talk about psychology? Uh...