Week 1: Accomplished!

Now that I have finished my first week of the semester, I can accurately assess how things will be.

My TA-ship will be a bit busy, but not too bad. It has a lot more reading that I must keep up with than Western Civ (the class I TAed last semester), but much of the reading cross-lists with my Atlantic history course so not all is lost. I will get more out of it. Every Thursday Dr. M gives a weekly quiz, which I will grade in his office after class each week. The first set only took me about 20 minutes. Best news of all, I still get to give a lecture despite the furlough days. I was thinking that Dr. M might not want to give up a day to teach when he might have to give up a few, but nope! Any topic I want is mine, mine, mine.

Overall, my classes should be lively. Southern History only meets periodically while Atlantic History meets weekly. Lots of reading is involved, but that's the lot of a graduate student.

On another side....

THE THESISTHESISTHESISTHESISTHESIS

It forever haunts me! While I was grading quizzes in Dr. M's office a fellow student of mine came in to discuss her academic plan with him. Although we're both set to graduate and apply to Ph.D. programs at the same time, she seems so much more together than I. She knows her paper topic for the class and her exact thesis topic. While I pretty much know my paper topic, I have yet to bring a thesis topic to fruition. Where's my muse?! Inspiration, hath thou forsaken me?

The only topic I have come up with in detail is to explore why pirates were glorified throughout the Atlantic World. Now how they were glorified, but why. I need to run that by Dr. M. I think that could be feasible. My other interests are gender and medicine so I am contemplating something along the lines of midwifery. My obstacle is coming up with an actual topic through that, so we'll see. It can get rather disheartening at times.

Daily Advice

Concerning theses? I have none. So all I have to say is DO YOUR READING!

First Day Post!

My apologies for not posting in the last week, dear readers. I have had many things going on and plus it was still summer break so there was not much graduate school stuff to post about.

However! Today is the first day of classes for me so I can happily announce that my postings shall become more regular. Also, at the bottom of my postings will be some daily graduate student/school advice.

My schedule at my lovely budget-deprived State University:
Tuesday/Thursdays: Early America and the Atlantic World (I'm a TA)
Tuesday: Colloquium of the US South
Wednesday: Atlantic History

As I obviously pointed out, I am indeed a TA for an upper-division course this semester. In my experience, TA's are kind of a non-entity. We exist in the classroom, keep up on the reading, grade all assignments, and give a lecture if we are lucky enough to do so. It looks great on the C.V./resume/Ph.D. applications. I am hoping to give a lecture, but now I'm not sure because of the budget crisis.

Budget crisis? It's everywhere! The worst part of it at my lovely State University are the furlough days where all services and (some) classes are closed to save money. No one is happy and it's all a huge mess. Less classes, less professors, same amount of students. I, myself, remain unaffected as none of my classes were cancelled but many students are not in such a lucky boat as I. It truly is a pity and the state should be more than appropriately ashamed of itself.

Daily Advice:
Thank your lucky stars that you're a grad student and therefore may have some seniority/importance protection against cancelled classes.

Note: I originally put the times of my classes, but as Mitch pointed out in the comments, it probably wasn't a good idea so I have removed that information.

It's Never a Waste

Tonight's blog entry is geared towards the general student population rather than just graduate students. Some of you might even think this is a waste of an entry to plan, type, and read but that's why this is my blog - not yours.

Sometimes in school, you want to get ahead of the game. For social science/humanities grad students, this usually entails getting a jump start on the reading. I was a good girl. I had my Atlantic History syllabus as early as the end of last semester and was emailed my Southern History book list at the beginning of July. Being the good girl (as I just stated) I am, I ordered all my books over a month ago. However, I found out today that my AH syllabus was updated, which meant that I own one book I do not need and have to order a book that I do not have.

I could have been annoyed. I could have felt like I had wasted a bit of money. But I did not. On the contrary, actually. Why???

Student of all levels, take heart! There is no such thing as a waste of money when you buy the wrong book in your subject, for it may prove to help you eventually.* It never hurts to have one extra book lying around. It might even hold the key to your undecided thesis topic.

*This statement is, of course, null and void if you are studying something that requires a massive "for reals" textbook. When you accidentally buy the wrong edition of a book that costs nearly a hundred dollars, that always hurts no matter how hard you try to justify it. As a former biology major, I know this particular brand of pain,

Some Introspection...

I got an email from one of my professors this afternoon that started out: "I hope you've had a productive and enjoyable summer..."

Well, my summer certainly has been enjoyable but can I honestly say it's been productive? No...

No, I cannot say that my summer has been productive unless you count one single day of research and daily ponderings of a thesis topic that have yet come to fruition. My only excuse is that I am just a lowly MA student rather than a grand Ph.D. student. Okay, I admit it - that's a shitty excuse.

I imagine that Ph.D. students spend their summers being immensely productive. I cannot speak for my fellow MA students, but I know that once I have a thesis topic rolling I will not feel the slight twinge of guilt when I get the inevitable end-of-summer email from a professor that includes the phrase "productive summer."

Unless of course she simply meant "doing stuff" in a noncommittal tone....

A Graduatory Introduction

Is "graduatory" even a word? Well, it is now because that's the first rule of graduate school: improvise.

This blog of mine is brand new and my intention is to appraise, cheerlead, and (eventually) complain about my graduate school experience. All the while I shall impart my endless amounts of bountiful experience and wisdom that I have gained over the past three (US) semesters as a Master's student:

1. How to read (or skim) hundreds and hundreds of pages of academic text in 5 days.

-I say 5 days because unless you're exceptionally diligent little-to-no reading will done the day of class. However, this statement is null and void if you

are desperately behind and were foolish enough to save the reading for the night before and the day of. Don't lie - we've all done it.

2. How to make ample time for independent research needed for those long end-of-semester papers that we all look forward to and dread at the same time while reading two books a week.

3. How to make ample time for the extra-curricular activities needed to pad the C.V./resume to prove our accomplishments for job searches and Ph.D. applications while reading at least two books a week.

4. How to make ample time for socialization while reading at least two books a week.

This list will undoubtedly grow as the semester wears on. I hope my posts can be relatable and advisable to you other graduate students, but I must state right away that since my focus is history my posts may be geared more towards the humanities/social science folk.

Classes start in 10 days. Until then, it's time for preparation.

More to come!