Breaking in the Grad Student: Week 1

I’m a Grad student!

Before anything else is said, I want to give a special thanks to the following people for writing me letters of recommendation.

• Stephanie Evans
• Jim Jackson
• Edward Jensen
• Darynda Jones
• Jack Parker
• Stella Riley 

As of today, I’ve been a grad student for a full week, attended each of my classes at least once, and am pretty sure I’ve still got that “new grad student smell”. I’ve been assured it will soon be replaced by the “tired, cynical, and stressed out grad student smell” but I’m going to do my best to avoid that by keeping well organized and staying ahead of my workload. Or by purchasing stronger deodorant.

Even as I get my feet under me, I can’t help but feel a little like a newborn kitten with my eyes still shut, trying to feel my way around. I took four classes, adding up to a total of twelve hours thinking that would be a light load like undergrad. Apparently I’m an idiot, and even nine hours is uncommon. But having been to all my classes, I think I’m going to be alright with this semester’s workload (knock on wood).

My classes by the way, are…

• Literary Criticism and Theory
• Practicum Publishing and Editing
• Creative Writing: Poetry
• American Literature: 1860-1920

So far everyone’s been incredibly friendly and helpful, and there’s been no shortage of assigned reading material. I forget how my conversation went with a fellow student went exactly, but it was something along the lines of “with all those courses, aren’t you going to be reading about a novel a week?”

It wasn’t the question so much as the tone of incredulity that struck me. Doesn’t every grad student read that much? I read that much for pleasure on just about any given week anyways. Admittedly that’s not the same as reading for papers and deep discussion, but why can’t this be pleasurable too? I’m exactly where I want to be and so far the reading I’ve been assigned has been fascinating, even fun, and sparked a few ideas for essays I may end up sharing as blog posts since I’m unlikely to ever have cause to write them for my classes.

I’ll definitely be putting up some of my poetry from the corresponding class. Heck, maybe I can get some people here to critique, edit and make suggestions! Of course, that demands followers but I can hope right? 

Blog posts, facebook updates, and tweets should be returning to their (ir)regular schedule soon, or at least be FAR more frequent than they've been of late!