perspective
Everything will be better after November 11th.
You see, part II of the comprehensive exams are held on November 11th. Part I is the week before, on the 4th, unless you're me or my pal Rob, in which case it will be on the 3rd and the GRE subject test is on the 4th.
That's a lot of literature.
I was sitting in the English Society lounge (best couches on campus!) the other day with one of my classmates (Hi Mary!) and one of our former classmates-now-a-lecturer popped in and we were talking about workloads and such. The classmate-turned-lecturer was telling us how the 4/4 composition load is really hitting her hard and that next semester would be worse because of class times and her commute. She asked us about our schedules and I said next semester would be a hell of a lot easier than this semester because I'll just be working at my real job, writing a thesis, and teaching one class.
[crickets]
"As opposed to," I said, "working my real job, taking two seminars, teaching one class, and studying for comps." [and handling some grading duties for one of
Janet's classes but that's like a coffee break]
Well then, they said, I guess when you look at it that way, next semester
will be better.
It's all a matter of perspective.
Right now I just really really really really need to finish my thesis proposal draft, the one I said would be done, oh, two weeks ago? Yeah. And I have grading to do, and class prep for tomorrow, and study group prep for tomorrow night.
Yesterday's study group was fun—I gave my "here's what you need to know about Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne's short stories in 45 minutes or less" lecture. For tomorrow night I'm going to talk about
Middlemarch and
Great Expectations. This study group really is like having another seminar (or two!).
Everything will be better after November 11th.
[unless I don't pass the comps, in which case next semester will really suck.]Labels: gradschool
