The Semester Is Over! (Fall 2005 in Review)
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With one last press of an e-mail send button at 12:54 A.M., my Fall semester at Cal State officially ended. I never thought that any semester could be more draining than my 19-unit, student organization-running, frequent-travelling, bad-TAing debacle last semester...boy was I wrong. But rather than complain and moan about how busy I've been and how I'm so tired and so forth, I think I should, as Mark McGwire once told Congress when they were asking him if he took steroids, only "Focus on the positive."
A lot of really great things have happened the past four months that I can be thankful for and that have helped me to grow as a friend, scholar, classmate, writer, you name it. Here are just a few of the memories (in very abbreviated form) I think I'll take with me:
September 2005 - I began tutoring in the Writing Center, which has since made me a better and more self-aware writer than I was before and also proved to be a nice little teaser for what it will be like teaching first-year composition in graduate school and beyond. I was kind of nervous and self-critical to begin with, but I'm much more comfortable than I used to be. Also started working on my Statement of Purpose (now in its 6th draft and soon to be a 7th) and studying for the GRE, which I guess can be considered a regret since I started so late.
October 2005 - The month where I finally felt some community in my work, school, and personal lives. Going up to Long Beach on the 7th for the Pre-Doc was a fun highlight, and I think this is when our little "Graduate School Support Group" began to meet. Thank you Cyndi and Yvonne (and Kristina too) for being such great friends and such great moral support, and I hope that come March we're all satisfied with where we end up. Now if only we found two more students we could be a club and get money for free food! I also took a quick trip to Idaho this month, met the strangest shuttle driver ever (he tried to hook me up with some techno jazz even though he was like 60 all the while stuffing a Taco Bell burrito into his mouth), returned to Washington state for the first time in 20 years, and ditched a conference to go hiking instead, which was really fun but I wished I had someone there to enjoy it with.
November 2005 - I really don't remember much about this month aside from my realization that I can never be everything to everyone - I was really being nothing to no one, I think. I quit my library job this month, which I loved to death but just didn't have the motivation for anymore, and decided to fully concentrate on my graduate school applications. This month I am reminded of the kindness of a mentor who teaches at Rice University, and was patient enough to accept 5-6 rushed mailings of recommendation forms and never once get angry at or criticize me.
December 2005 - Application hell! Yes, that's what they call it. Sent applications to 4 different universities and nearly blew up doing so, including squeezing 3 last minute letters of recommendation in 6 hours before one application was due. Finished up all my school writing projects, finished up tutoring, and now I can work out and blog frequently for the first time since January 2004. Its nice having pressure off my shoulders for once. Also, the month is not over! Washington D.C. in 4 days whoooooooo! It will my first time there and I'm really excited and I'm hoping to take a bunch of pictures (non Camera phone pics). I of course will be writing about it in both Myspace and LiveJournal. Pray that I don't freeze...
So there are just a few reflections I have, maybe in the future some of them will be more fleshed out. Until then, I invite you to take a look at my profile pic of Michel Foucault hanging out with some 1970s Berkeley kids.
With one last press of an e-mail send button at 12:54 A.M., my Fall semester at Cal State officially ended. I never thought that any semester could be more draining than my 19-unit, student organization-running, frequent-travelling, bad-TAing debacle last semester...boy was I wrong. But rather than complain and moan about how busy I've been and how I'm so tired and so forth, I think I should, as Mark McGwire once told Congress when they were asking him if he took steroids, only "Focus on the positive."
A lot of really great things have happened the past four months that I can be thankful for and that have helped me to grow as a friend, scholar, classmate, writer, you name it. Here are just a few of the memories (in very abbreviated form) I think I'll take with me:
September 2005 - I began tutoring in the Writing Center, which has since made me a better and more self-aware writer than I was before and also proved to be a nice little teaser for what it will be like teaching first-year composition in graduate school and beyond. I was kind of nervous and self-critical to begin with, but I'm much more comfortable than I used to be. Also started working on my Statement of Purpose (now in its 6th draft and soon to be a 7th) and studying for the GRE, which I guess can be considered a regret since I started so late.
October 2005 - The month where I finally felt some community in my work, school, and personal lives. Going up to Long Beach on the 7th for the Pre-Doc was a fun highlight, and I think this is when our little "Graduate School Support Group" began to meet. Thank you Cyndi and Yvonne (and Kristina too) for being such great friends and such great moral support, and I hope that come March we're all satisfied with where we end up. Now if only we found two more students we could be a club and get money for free food! I also took a quick trip to Idaho this month, met the strangest shuttle driver ever (he tried to hook me up with some techno jazz even though he was like 60 all the while stuffing a Taco Bell burrito into his mouth), returned to Washington state for the first time in 20 years, and ditched a conference to go hiking instead, which was really fun but I wished I had someone there to enjoy it with.
November 2005 - I really don't remember much about this month aside from my realization that I can never be everything to everyone - I was really being nothing to no one, I think. I quit my library job this month, which I loved to death but just didn't have the motivation for anymore, and decided to fully concentrate on my graduate school applications. This month I am reminded of the kindness of a mentor who teaches at Rice University, and was patient enough to accept 5-6 rushed mailings of recommendation forms and never once get angry at or criticize me.
December 2005 - Application hell! Yes, that's what they call it. Sent applications to 4 different universities and nearly blew up doing so, including squeezing 3 last minute letters of recommendation in 6 hours before one application was due. Finished up all my school writing projects, finished up tutoring, and now I can work out and blog frequently for the first time since January 2004. Its nice having pressure off my shoulders for once. Also, the month is not over! Washington D.C. in 4 days whoooooooo! It will my first time there and I'm really excited and I'm hoping to take a bunch of pictures (non Camera phone pics). I of course will be writing about it in both Myspace and LiveJournal. Pray that I don't freeze...
So there are just a few reflections I have, maybe in the future some of them will be more fleshed out. Until then, I invite you to take a look at my profile pic of Michel Foucault hanging out with some 1970s Berkeley kids.