Joel Ortegon

I want to express my gratitude to my friends, family, and especially my mom, for the amazing support they’ve provided during my graduate school journey. Your encouragement, patience, and unwavering faith in me made a significant impact during the toughest times and allowed me to celebrate even the smallest achievements with pride. Whether it was listening to me talk endlessly about phonemes, morphemes or the like, helping me push through deadlines, or simply being there with love when I needed it the most, you’ve been my rock. I truly couldn’t have reached this point without your support, and I carry it with me as I move forward to the next chapter of my life. 

 

One of my absolute favorite memories from this linguistic journey is with my impressive cohort. The first time we hung out outside of class, we had planned to relax and enjoy some board games, but before we could fully get into the games, we found ourselves teaming up to tackle our phonetics homework. It was a little unruly, with IPA symbols scattered across our laptops and notebooks, but that night marked the beginning of a bond of friendship. It reminded me just how important community and shared experiences are in any journey.