Initial Posturing
I have to admit that I've been so focused on the things that are aggravating that I forgot that I like grad school. I was therefore very surprised when I had a good day at school today.
I had one class, and the prof had us go around and introduce ourselves.
(On a side note, I always find these activities interesting because of the posturing that goes on. There are always those students who are trying to impress the rest or the instructor with their incredible interest or background. I guess I try not to do that too much after finding out that there's always someone who is smarter or has a more incredible background...or worse yet, that you don't know as much as you thought you did. I find myself thinking more and more that this is a sign of immaturity and/or an inferiority complex.)
When it was my turn, I said my name, that I was a grad student in my department, and gave a one-line summary of what my research was. The prof is familiar with my background, and I was rather surprised when he mentioned that we won't be covering any aspect of electromagnetics in the class. However, he said, that shouldn't matter too much to me because I have such an excellent background.
So here I was trying not to do any posturing, and the prof did it for me. I have to admit, though, that I thought it was pretty nice of him to say that. It made me feel like he respects my background.
I also got to see a few friends today. One even joined me for an emergency trip to Starbucks for a chai...and bought!
So yeah...good day.
I had one class, and the prof had us go around and introduce ourselves.
(On a side note, I always find these activities interesting because of the posturing that goes on. There are always those students who are trying to impress the rest or the instructor with their incredible interest or background. I guess I try not to do that too much after finding out that there's always someone who is smarter or has a more incredible background...or worse yet, that you don't know as much as you thought you did. I find myself thinking more and more that this is a sign of immaturity and/or an inferiority complex.)
When it was my turn, I said my name, that I was a grad student in my department, and gave a one-line summary of what my research was. The prof is familiar with my background, and I was rather surprised when he mentioned that we won't be covering any aspect of electromagnetics in the class. However, he said, that shouldn't matter too much to me because I have such an excellent background.
So here I was trying not to do any posturing, and the prof did it for me. I have to admit, though, that I thought it was pretty nice of him to say that. It made me feel like he respects my background.
I also got to see a few friends today. One even joined me for an emergency trip to Starbucks for a chai...and bought!
So yeah...good day.