After weeks of getting B+’s, the A-’s, I finally got an A in my New Media, Old Media class. Not entirely sure what I did different, but I finally got an A.
I went out to celebrate, and met up with my sister and friend who were out. I was reminded this morning that the random nights of pounding a bunch of beers and being a-ok the next morning are way in my past.
LOTS. and LOTS more are gonna be killed before this quarter is over. i’ve read so many studies and scholarly articles in the past 6 weeks, i can’t begin to describe how overloaded my head is with facts about things regular people couldn’t care less about. it kinda bugs me, because i try my best to be environmentally friendly and shit, but it’s a necessary evil according to my professor. sure beats spending $150 on a book i’ll get $10 back at the end of the quarter right?
anyway, grad school, about as rough as i thought it was gonna be, and it’s gonna get rougher. but a master’s degree will help me in the future right? RIGHT?!?
so unless you’ve been living under a rock or have been completely cutoff from the internet, the midwest, especially chicago, was slammed hard thanks to mother nature. 20+ inches of snow, gusting winds, people stranded on lake shore drive, etc. this all lead to a few snow days from work and school. which has been nice. i’ve able to catch up on a ton of sleep (averaged about 9 hours of sleep) as well as had time to go over the readings that were originally due this week. and thank god, the extra time has allowed me to figure out what the hell i was reading. thank you mother nature, for giving me some sleep and giving me time to figure out what the hell i’m reading so i don’t make a total ass out of myself in class.
last night was one of the classes where i had to discuss my assigned reading and write a 2-page paper on it. it would make total sense that my prof would ask me 2 questions regarding my reading that i didn’t cover in my paper right? literally, i wrote about every other topic covered in the paper but the 2 i was asked about. lucky for me, i was able to answer them without a hiccup.
that’s when it kinda hit me. be prepared for anything. during undergrad, i could b.s. my way through almost anything. in fact, i was hoping to get a double major in that. but it’s almost not possible to b.s. through this particular course. the 2 topics he asked me about, weren’t explained in the text, so i ended up googling them and scribbling some notes before class. thank god i did, otherwise i would’ve looked like a bigger ass than i already look like (i currently have a good mountain man look going). anyway, 1/3 of the way through the quarter, keep on trucking.
back in the day, the process of paper writing for myself and my roommate casey went something like this. grab our laptops in the am, set up shop in our living room the saturday before the paper was due, watch college basketball and movies all day, run errands (which typically involved getting hot dogs and cokes at open pantry), play madden, while writing the paper in 5-10 minute spurts throughout. when 10 pm rolled around, we usually had about half a page or so written, and we would go out, or stay in and play madden the same thing would happen the next day, although we usually played 1 less game of madden, or watched 1 less sporting event.
fast forward to grad school, and my paper writing process is still pretty much the same. and i don’t really have a problem with that.
every class has one. and if you’re unlucky, every class might have more than 1. regardless, we all know who s/he is. they think they know more than the professor, or the students, or both, and the way they talk can be condescending. in class last night, the know it all, actually had a question! i giggled to myself, which she probably heard, but i didn’t care. it’s good to see her put in her place, flustered and confused. the best part, it was a question she should have known the answer to. take that know it all!
so 2 weeks into working full-time and taking 2 graduate classes, and i can honestly say this: i have never been so tired in my life. i grind at work during the week, and 2 of those nights, i’m in class for 3+ hours. on the nights i have class, i’m basically going from 5:45 am until 9:30 pm. i’m hoping that soon enough, my body will be fully adjusted to my crazy schedule. i can’t imagine having kids or being married and doing this. i’m 27, which isn’t that old, and doing this right now is starting to make me feel old. throw in trying to do freelance projects on the side and trying to rebuild my portfolio, and yes, you get the idea. but i think it’s worth it, because in about a year and a half, i’ll have 2 bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. WHOMP.
just a quick shout. thanks for the follows guy. pretty cool to see that there are people semi-interested as i bumble my way through grad school.
anyway, since i manage my 2 tumblrs with the same e-mail, if you see an “internetphil” has started following you, that’s me.
i come straight home, hopefully find parking within 5 minutes, and then eat about 3 bowls of corn pops because i’m dead tired from being up since 6 am. i then try to figure out what happened in class. like tonight, i discovered that my point of view for my paper was way off from what my professor thought of. fantastic. but at least i used citations and evidence to support my claims right?!?! whatevs, time for bowl 2.
it’s been a looooooooooong time since i’ve had to write a paper, and it definitely comes across that way when i read it back. i have 8 hours to make it sound like a 27-year old with 2 degrees is writing it, and not a freshmen in college with a hangover playing Halo.
