It's Hanging Where?

I guess I should start by saying that I worked really hard for my diploma.  Hours spent in Chemistry labs.  Weekends spent doing research.  Four years of hard labor culminating in my graduation from the University of Richmond with a double major in Biology and Chemistry.  No easy feat, especially since I am, how do I say it, challenged when it comes to anything math related.  

So where is that hard-earned diploma hanging now?  The laundry room.  That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the laundry room.  I left my job to raise my amazing kids.  We downsized homes, and I no longer have an office.  There were many choices that led to this... the hanging of the diploma in the laundry room.  There really just isn't an appropriate place for it.  But I feel like it needs to be hung.  Simply to remind myself that I did do something different than this.

Now don't get me wrong.  I absolutely love my job.  I love my kids.  I look forward to waking up every day knowing that I get to spend it with my kids.  I chose this.  I'm lucky.  Most people don't get to make this choice.  

I guess it's just my own insecurities that lead me to constantly debate the placement of this one memento of my pre-baby life.  On my worst days, I wonder why I worked so hard.  Just to end up doing laundry all day.  It seems to be hanging there mocking me.  I wonder if I have any marketable skills.  On my best days, I look at it and think about all that I have to offer my girls because of my college experiences.  How many other people can explain in great detail to their children how to extract, amplify, electrophorese, and analyze a DNA sample?  Most days I look at it and feel just a little sad for just a tiny moment.  Then I realize that my newly walking Ladybug has just peed on the floor because I forgot to put the diaper on her before I picked her outfit out of the mountains of laundry that I need to fold.