Oh family drama
Greetings ya'll.
The graduate school application phase of my life is officially over, at least for now. The bad news is I didn't get in anywhere. The good news is, I'm pretty much okay with that. I think I rambled on here about how I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do after all, and the responses I got to my applications seemed to have confirmed that.
Last night at dinner I was talking light-heartedly about how I had my Foreign Service essays due at midnight, and how I'd finished all my grad school apps basically the day they were due for scholarship consideration. lol lol lol lol. Except then, my dad goes, "Well, and we've all seen what happens, haven't we?" My brother and my mom and I kind of stared at him blankly, but I knew what he meant. My mom went ahead and asked "What happens?" and my dad said basically well look you don't get in.
Then he had the gall to tell me not to get mad. >.> Needless to say, dinner was over.
Seriously, even if that were the reason I didn't get in, you'd think not getting in would be punishment enough without having your father there to rub it in. The thing about my dad is, when he has something due, he starts and finishes it like a year (sometimes literally) in advance. That's fine. That is his way. Me, I've always been a procrastinator. Not to say bad things haven't happened from time to time b/c I put stuff off, but generally, it works out fine for me. In any event, as far as the grad apps and Foreign Service essays went, it's not like I was doing the whole thing the night before. I just leave off the last bits and use the deadline adrenaline to get it finished in time.
And I'd long known grad school wouldn't work out this year, basically as soon as I dropped down to 4 applications and no safety school. The odds are just not good enough, and my app wasn't competitive w/o having majored in linguistics, or, hell, having one of my recommendations get in on time (and that happened even though I gave it plenty of time.) I'd told my dad this before and he'd seemed understanding, but last night I guess he just decided to whip out his wrathful fatherly disapproval at what was supposed to be a light-hearted moment.
In other related news, he wants me to go with him to Michigan in October to look into their graduate programs in Southwest studies. His reasoning is that it's a flexible field, so I can study linguistics by somehow fenagling in my interest in Spanish/English cross-linguistic influence. That would be great if that were really my primary interest, and if I though the Southwest studies department would provide me with sufficient resources. I think my dad's just really paranoid about wanting me to do some kind of graduate study, which is what I've long suspected.
Anyway. I passed the written Foreign Service Officer Test that I took last month, and since they switched up the application process this year, the essays I was working on last night are the last step before they tell me if I make it to the oral. I should find out about that in about a month. At least by mixing up the process, you don't have that God-awful months-long wait between taking the written and finding out if you made it to the oral.
So I'm enjoying a nice couple of days off here, and relishing my 4-hour mid shift tomorrow that allows me to both sleep in and enjoy my evening. For a couple of weeks I had nothing but opens (6 in a row at one point) and I thought it was the end of me. Now I've got a nice mix of shifts, and I'm hovering back closer to 30 hours, which is nice. And if all goes well, I should be up for a raise within the next month!
Goals for the rest of the day: play phone-tag with Jessie, finish my taxes?
The graduate school application phase of my life is officially over, at least for now. The bad news is I didn't get in anywhere. The good news is, I'm pretty much okay with that. I think I rambled on here about how I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do after all, and the responses I got to my applications seemed to have confirmed that.
Last night at dinner I was talking light-heartedly about how I had my Foreign Service essays due at midnight, and how I'd finished all my grad school apps basically the day they were due for scholarship consideration. lol lol lol lol. Except then, my dad goes, "Well, and we've all seen what happens, haven't we?" My brother and my mom and I kind of stared at him blankly, but I knew what he meant. My mom went ahead and asked "What happens?" and my dad said basically well look you don't get in.
Then he had the gall to tell me not to get mad. >.> Needless to say, dinner was over.
Seriously, even if that were the reason I didn't get in, you'd think not getting in would be punishment enough without having your father there to rub it in. The thing about my dad is, when he has something due, he starts and finishes it like a year (sometimes literally) in advance. That's fine. That is his way. Me, I've always been a procrastinator. Not to say bad things haven't happened from time to time b/c I put stuff off, but generally, it works out fine for me. In any event, as far as the grad apps and Foreign Service essays went, it's not like I was doing the whole thing the night before. I just leave off the last bits and use the deadline adrenaline to get it finished in time.
And I'd long known grad school wouldn't work out this year, basically as soon as I dropped down to 4 applications and no safety school. The odds are just not good enough, and my app wasn't competitive w/o having majored in linguistics, or, hell, having one of my recommendations get in on time (and that happened even though I gave it plenty of time.) I'd told my dad this before and he'd seemed understanding, but last night I guess he just decided to whip out his wrathful fatherly disapproval at what was supposed to be a light-hearted moment.
In other related news, he wants me to go with him to Michigan in October to look into their graduate programs in Southwest studies. His reasoning is that it's a flexible field, so I can study linguistics by somehow fenagling in my interest in Spanish/English cross-linguistic influence. That would be great if that were really my primary interest, and if I though the Southwest studies department would provide me with sufficient resources. I think my dad's just really paranoid about wanting me to do some kind of graduate study, which is what I've long suspected.
Anyway. I passed the written Foreign Service Officer Test that I took last month, and since they switched up the application process this year, the essays I was working on last night are the last step before they tell me if I make it to the oral. I should find out about that in about a month. At least by mixing up the process, you don't have that God-awful months-long wait between taking the written and finding out if you made it to the oral.
So I'm enjoying a nice couple of days off here, and relishing my 4-hour mid shift tomorrow that allows me to both sleep in and enjoy my evening. For a couple of weeks I had nothing but opens (6 in a row at one point) and I thought it was the end of me. Now I've got a nice mix of shifts, and I'm hovering back closer to 30 hours, which is nice. And if all goes well, I should be up for a raise within the next month!
Goals for the rest of the day: play phone-tag with Jessie, finish my taxes?