One Month Update

It has been exactly one month since I started graduate school. I have not blogged mostly because there has been much I have been processing and experiencing that I didn't feel I had the ability to put into actual words. Living in a new place, starting a new school, and a new job were major changes in themselves, but even they were somewhat eclipsed by a recent family situation that has left me rather imbalanced. Until I am able to write something more profound, I will instead offer a basic update on the last 30 days.

I am currently taking two courses: Lit Theory & The Profession of Literature, and Women & Skepticism: Early American Literature. So far both of these courses have been difficult (especially the reading load and level of writing), but also incredibly rewarding. The graduate school classroom has offered me a safe place where like-minded people strive to understand and challenge the complex ideas within our field. It has only been four weeks, and I already feel that I have learned so much about my discipline.

A part from my schooling, I am enjoying my part time job as the head graduate assistant in the university's Gender and Women's Studies department. It is different from my work in the Women's Center during undergrad in that it is an academic department rather than a resource center, but it seems to do a decent job at offering programs that cater to both activism and academics. I help manage the major/minor (which is relatively small at this point), as well as plan/coordinate events that relate to gender and women's issues. Tomorrow, for instance, we have an event that is a joint lecture and poetry reading that focuses on Anna Douglass. I am slowly being given more responsibilities and am especially looking forward to the opportunity of leading a pop-culture book club for undergraduate students. I'm starting with Fifty Shades of Grey. Go big or go home, right?

In closing, a quote in one of my theoretical articles found great resonance with me: "Although time can always be studied scientifically and broken up into equal units, time is also always lived subjectively. As we know, one minute of routine work is lived very differently than a moment of a passionate kiss." Time has always perplexed me, but that mystification has now only grown more profound. In many ways, the last 30 days have felt like years; yet in another breath, like days. For the relatively short amount of time it has been, I have already learned and experienced so much. It is difficult for me to imagine all of what is still to come.

(Until then, I extend an ever-grateful "thanks" to my loved ones who have supported me, cheered for me, prayed for me, listened to my complaints, and stood by me as I continue to adjust. It is no exaggeration to say that I survive--and have any chance at succeeding--everyday in the classroom and in the office because of the people who offer me such steadfast support.)