Interlude:
WHY HELLO.
The last time I posted was nine months ago! Wow!! A lot has happened since then!! I should actually be doing (a shit ton of) work right now, but I've really been itching to make a post, so here is a brief rundown of The Life And Times:
→ I graduated in May! I have a BA now! Yeah!!! And in August I started my graduate program, whoo. My concentration is RTW (Rhetoric and Teaching Writing), which I love because everything is actually relevant to what I want to do. As an undergrad I majored in TESOL because that was the closest option to what I wanted, but this is like... ACTUALLY what I want. And I love it. I'm more excited about teaching than I ever have been. I'm taking three classes -- history of RTW, theories/pedagogies of RTW, and a seminar on rhetoric -- and they are all intense individually and EXTREMELY intense together but I love them, I love my teachers, I love my cohort, I love what I'm learning, I love it all. It's just........ very time-consuming. I don't really have days off, and when major assignments are due I basically don't sleep. But it feels rewarding even when I'm in the thick of it. AND, next year I get to teach!! Whoo!!!!!!
→ Something really clicked for me in the first few weeks of the semester and I've become obsessed with the idea of teaching writing by not grading. Teaching ANYTHING by not grading sounds like such an outrageous idea the first time you hear it, but in the past two months I've done so much research on the topic that I know it can be (has been) done, and I'm absolutely going to experiment with it when I get my own class, and I'm just really really excited about it. Fuck grading!! Yeah!!!
→ JB!!!! Last time I posted he was only five months old, and now he's THIRTEEN MONTHS! A WHOLE YEAR AND SOME CHANGE! He's walking, he's eating real food with his own grubby hands, his hair is so outrageous and so curly, he wakes me up every morning by giving me kissies, and he is so goofy and so funny and so happy and so wonderful. I'm still nursing (our goal is two years) but it's effortless now and sometimes I think back to how excruciating it was in the beginning and can't believe we made it this far, but we sure did. He isn't quite talking yet but about a week ago he said his first word -- "Lamby," the name of his beloved stuffed lamb -- and this morning he said "hi." And he's getting really good at imitating other kinds of sounds. If someone coughs near him he tries to mimic it and it's the funniest thing. He's such a wonderfully happy little man and I love him so, so much. He frustrates me sometimes, sure, the way any tiny irrational amoral being would, but in general he's such a good kid and he lights up my heart.
→ That's.......... actually it? There are other little things but most of my life is JB and school (or, much of the time, school and JB, which is really unfortunate but also unfortunately necessary) and I'm okay with that. I have two more years (closer to a year and a half at this point) and then I'll have my MA and can get a job and even with a shitty starting salary it'll immediately be so much more money than we're used to, enough that we can move into our own space and not have to worry about how the bills are going to get paid and I can buy JB all the toys he wants and I'll finally have my dream job and it'll all be worth the stress and the sleepless nights. In the meantime: it's almost 2am and I have a two-page teaching philosophy to write and a textbook to analyze and create a handout on before bed, yeah! Fighting!!
→ Reminder that I'm pretty active over on Twitter if anyone is interested. My main handle is kinopurinchan, and I also have kino_and_jb where at this point I mostly just post pictures of my sweet dude. That one is locked but I'm not particularly discerning about who I allow access to. Just so's you know!!
I hope you guys are all doing well!!!!!
Crossposted here on Dreamwidth. Comment here or there! ♥
The last time I posted was nine months ago! Wow!! A lot has happened since then!! I should actually be doing (a shit ton of) work right now, but I've really been itching to make a post, so here is a brief rundown of The Life And Times:
→ I graduated in May! I have a BA now! Yeah!!! And in August I started my graduate program, whoo. My concentration is RTW (Rhetoric and Teaching Writing), which I love because everything is actually relevant to what I want to do. As an undergrad I majored in TESOL because that was the closest option to what I wanted, but this is like... ACTUALLY what I want. And I love it. I'm more excited about teaching than I ever have been. I'm taking three classes -- history of RTW, theories/pedagogies of RTW, and a seminar on rhetoric -- and they are all intense individually and EXTREMELY intense together but I love them, I love my teachers, I love my cohort, I love what I'm learning, I love it all. It's just........ very time-consuming. I don't really have days off, and when major assignments are due I basically don't sleep. But it feels rewarding even when I'm in the thick of it. AND, next year I get to teach!! Whoo!!!!!!
→ Something really clicked for me in the first few weeks of the semester and I've become obsessed with the idea of teaching writing by not grading. Teaching ANYTHING by not grading sounds like such an outrageous idea the first time you hear it, but in the past two months I've done so much research on the topic that I know it can be (has been) done, and I'm absolutely going to experiment with it when I get my own class, and I'm just really really excited about it. Fuck grading!! Yeah!!!
→ JB!!!! Last time I posted he was only five months old, and now he's THIRTEEN MONTHS! A WHOLE YEAR AND SOME CHANGE! He's walking, he's eating real food with his own grubby hands, his hair is so outrageous and so curly, he wakes me up every morning by giving me kissies, and he is so goofy and so funny and so happy and so wonderful. I'm still nursing (our goal is two years) but it's effortless now and sometimes I think back to how excruciating it was in the beginning and can't believe we made it this far, but we sure did. He isn't quite talking yet but about a week ago he said his first word -- "Lamby," the name of his beloved stuffed lamb -- and this morning he said "hi." And he's getting really good at imitating other kinds of sounds. If someone coughs near him he tries to mimic it and it's the funniest thing. He's such a wonderfully happy little man and I love him so, so much. He frustrates me sometimes, sure, the way any tiny irrational amoral being would, but in general he's such a good kid and he lights up my heart.
→ That's.......... actually it? There are other little things but most of my life is JB and school (or, much of the time, school and JB, which is really unfortunate but also unfortunately necessary) and I'm okay with that. I have two more years (closer to a year and a half at this point) and then I'll have my MA and can get a job and even with a shitty starting salary it'll immediately be so much more money than we're used to, enough that we can move into our own space and not have to worry about how the bills are going to get paid and I can buy JB all the toys he wants and I'll finally have my dream job and it'll all be worth the stress and the sleepless nights. In the meantime: it's almost 2am and I have a two-page teaching philosophy to write and a textbook to analyze and create a handout on before bed, yeah! Fighting!!
→ Reminder that I'm pretty active over on Twitter if anyone is interested. My main handle is kinopurinchan, and I also have kino_and_jb where at this point I mostly just post pictures of my sweet dude. That one is locked but I'm not particularly discerning about who I allow access to. Just so's you know!!
I hope you guys are all doing well!!!!!
Crossposted here on Dreamwidth. Comment here or there! ♥