I am two weeks and some odd hours away from finishing my first year of my PhD program. This feels…odd? I don’t know how it feels. I’ve been taking courses, oh, almost every term since I was five (including when I taught middle school). And after this term, I’ll just have a summer class (if I take it) and classes in the fall? And then, then it’s off to study for comps. It’s hard to believe that I’m nearly 1/4 the way done with this degree. Ah, cliché: time flies.
As I tweeted earlier today, I finished my last required reading of the term this afternoon. This leaves the following to be completed in the next 15 days: 3 seminar papers (I have at least 10 pages of each written), 1 shorter version of one of the seminar papers, 1 audio version of that shorter version, 1 reflection about the Sony Reader project, 1 book review, 1 presentation on the Sony Reader. A lot to do in 15 days. Plus teaching, conferencing with students, grading, etc.
Completely doable.
Another cliché: I’m so busy. I’ve noticed that when I talk with graduate student friends, it’s always we’re so busy. Not always. Sometimes it’s smart, engaged conversation, or witty witty stuff. But then I talk to non-graduate students, and they ask what’s new, and I don’t have an answer. Uh, I read a cool article about new media that you have no interest in? Uh, I slept most of Friday because I didn’t sleep much the few days before.
Yeah, that’s how it goes.
So, there’s only three years and two weeks left in my program. I’m kind of burning out on coursework, and I want to get to the dissertation… whatever that’ll be about. But, as my saying goes, in the way that I mess up all those sayings: we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.
