social life, academic life, teaching life [EDITED]
EDIT (as of 22 September, 6:30 pm): Not a very interesting post, I say, and worth forgetting.
Despite the onset of Fall Term, my social life might actually have improved. Last night I drank beer and ate pizza with some of my profs, and listened absently to the discussion of a problem that was deceiving simple to explain yet beyond my capacity for proof. Such is mathematics, sometimes. The beer wasn't bad, though.
I've also been invited to play frisbee and basketball, attend a post-Quals party and next week, attend a "soiree." I've never been to a soiree before; must I dress in dapper clothes and don a monocle? I think I'd feel too much like J. Alfred Prufrock if I tried that.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--
(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--
(They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
Oh well. Life isn't looking too bad.
Now I am a third-year, old enough for the first-years to dismiss, but young enough not to worry yet about post-grad life and the job search. I'm in the process of knowing something and it's the right time for me to start worrying about a prelim a lot and a dissertation a little.
It's a little like your junior year in high school. You're old enough to start knowing what you're supposed to be doing, but that doesn't mean that you can't still have fun.
I held my first Office Hour today, mostly because the tutoring center (the East Hall Math Lab, for those who know) isn't yet open and having promised my students I'd be there to field questions, it felt wrong to renege this opportunity.
To be honest, I didn't expect anyone. It's the first week, after all. But four students came today (five if you count the one who showed up early for registration and override issues) and I found myself blinking more often than was necessary.
Four. Wow. We hadn't even hit anything extremely difficult, yet, and the questions were deeper than I expected. I could swear that the students were actually thinking of questions to ask, instead of having severe issues with the current material at hand. If I didn't know any better, they seemed like they were asking questions for the sake of being able to ask them.
Well, at least they're doing the readings and looking at the problems. Life could be worse.
Despite the onset of Fall Term, my social life might actually have improved. Last night I drank beer and ate pizza with some of my profs, and listened absently to the discussion of a problem that was deceiving simple to explain yet beyond my capacity for proof. Such is mathematics, sometimes. The beer wasn't bad, though.
I've also been invited to play frisbee and basketball, attend a post-Quals party and next week, attend a "soiree." I've never been to a soiree before; must I dress in dapper clothes and don a monocle? I think I'd feel too much like J. Alfred Prufrock if I tried that.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--
(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--
(They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
Oh well. Life isn't looking too bad.
Now I am a third-year, old enough for the first-years to dismiss, but young enough not to worry yet about post-grad life and the job search. I'm in the process of knowing something and it's the right time for me to start worrying about a prelim a lot and a dissertation a little.
It's a little like your junior year in high school. You're old enough to start knowing what you're supposed to be doing, but that doesn't mean that you can't still have fun.
I held my first Office Hour today, mostly because the tutoring center (the East Hall Math Lab, for those who know) isn't yet open and having promised my students I'd be there to field questions, it felt wrong to renege this opportunity.
To be honest, I didn't expect anyone. It's the first week, after all. But four students came today (five if you count the one who showed up early for registration and override issues) and I found myself blinking more often than was necessary.
Four. Wow. We hadn't even hit anything extremely difficult, yet, and the questions were deeper than I expected. I could swear that the students were actually thinking of questions to ask, instead of having severe issues with the current material at hand. If I didn't know any better, they seemed like they were asking questions for the sake of being able to ask them.
Well, at least they're doing the readings and looking at the problems. Life could be worse.