no more tests

No correction has been issued. The website still says that I passed all of the exams. I called the state and they said that they get the results from the people that are telling me I passed. I guess that's it then. I just had to copy sections of the Endangered Species and Growth Management Acts onto a signed form and will write one more check. Then they send me a piece of paper to hang on the wall and instructions on how to get a rubber stamp with my name on it. I am now minimally competent to practice landscape architecture.

It feels different. I didn't think it would. It's not that I feel smarter or better at what I do. I just feel justified in the eyes of others. It's like getting a varsity letter on your jacket. It doesn't show that you are necessarily good, just that you are good enough to make the team. Now the engineers and architects, who have no idea what is on the exams, will know that I jumped the hoops. They can't see my young face and ask me how college was last year. Even though landscape architecture is no longer a man's world, engineering, architecture and building still are and I need all the tricks and tools I can get to demand a little respect working with these guys.

I don't know what this means as far as my own job. I don't know if I get a raise. I think I'm getting new business cards. All I know for sure is that I just wrapped up a 12 hour day and things aren't getting less busy any time soon. I'm not sure why I didn't take the advice of the career counseling program at my high school that said I should find a job in the outdoors where I can work independently. It was so right! Alas, I am thankful for now that I have a job. Someday, maybe the National Park Service will find me knocking at their large, wooden, lodge door.