Today’s the last Friday of the semester, the last day of finals week. As a grad student, finals week isn’t about taking finals, but rather grading them. That’s a process I’m almost done with.
Today I handed in my last assignment of the semester for my coursework, and by doing so actually finished up the last of my required coursework. Though I’ll accumulate more credits, and maybe even take another real course or two after I do my research, there’s nothing I need to take. Which is nice.
It marks the beginning of a turning point in my grad school career, I think; a corner I won’t finish turning until August, when–if all goes well–I take and pass my comprehensive exams and defend my dissertation prospectus. And then I’m off to do research for ten months.
This semester has also brought other changes. Near the beginning of the semester I started running. I’d planned on running a marathon, but that fell through. I’ve kept at it anyway–20 miles is my longest run so far–and that combined with some changes in eating habits has resulted in me losing about 40 pounds.
More recently, I joined a softball team. Or rather, two teams with the same name and same core group of people, one for a co-rec league and the other for a men’s league. Just today, Deb and I finished working on some landscaping with the generous help of her parents, the fruits of which include a small shed (as opposed to a big shed–I’m looking at you, Feeny!), the replacement of a pathetic garden with some bushes, and sod in a few areas we’ve had trouble getting grass to grow. It all looks great.
Things aren’t only coming together in the yard. I’ve figured out my apartment situation for next year–I’ll be staying in the same place I did two summers ago, which will be nice because I know the landlords and the area.
I’m in good shape as I look past this last batch of grading left to do towards finishing my comps reading and starting the by now even more daunting task of studying: going through and organizing all the notes I took, determining which books are important, why they’re important, how they fit together with other books, keeping names and titles and ideas straight, etc. And of course revising my prospectus with the help of my adviser. That sounds like a lot of work, because it is. But that’ll change…
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