My defining moment, graduation from college. Many people say this in reference to the moment they walk across the stage. I found that moment to be terribly anticlimactic, especially since I was trying to get out of there. My parents had come down to watch the ceremony and my mother wasted no time discussing how inconvenienced she was to be there. My defining moment came 3 months prior to graduation, when I actually finished the necessary coursework to graduate. That's when I got the "you're really going to do this" moment. Finishing college gave me my first taste of finishing what I started. It's different than finishing a really hard test, moving out on my own, paying my bills on my own or even finishing high school. Finishing college in a field that I chose and that I pursued was entirely self defining. I completed my bachelor's degree at the (older than my peers) age of 26. This defining moment was immediately followed by the moment where I had to reassess my identity. I had finished college, I was no longer a student. Not content to change my identity at this point, I went back to grad school. I then became the first person in my entire family to have a master's degree.