On our last day in Oregon, I made the mistake of checking e-mail and found a thread of e-mails from my Diploma classmates. The first heralded the arrival of our Unit 3 exam results, with subsequent posts from fellow students who had run out to the mailbox upon receipt of the first. Unfortunately, from my vantage point in Oregon, I was much too far from my mailbox to retrieve my own score. I tried to put it out of my mind for the remainder of the day, as we still had a long plane ride ahead of us.

We landed at Newark Airport, eventually retrieved our car (after initially taking the monorail to the wrong parking lot) and proceeded to drive home. Jared dropped me at the apartment, with our luggage, and headed off to the parking lot. While I awaited his return, I unpacked our bags, emptied the dishwasher and generally put our life back in motion. He entered the apartment and was surprised to learn that I had not yet ripped open the envelope, so he quickly flipped through the stack of mail and bade me to open it right then.

On tenterhooks, I carefully opened the envelope and slipped the pages from its hold, unfolding them to read the results. I was filled with a sigh of relief as I read that I had earned a Pass with Merit. Needless to say, I was pleased with the score and felt much lighter knowing that the end of the Diploma is in sight. With only 9 of the 60 credits remaining, I feel more confident in my wine knowledge and in my ability to successfully complete the Diploma program.