Reflecting...

I've been waiting to write this blog for a while. I've just been waiting for the right conditions. As I sit here typing this blog, I am sitting downstairs in the comfort of my own home. There is a fire in the wood stove to my right, and it's gentle warmth fills the whole house. My cat, Patches sits in my lap and purrs as she watches letters fill the screen. I've been home for a little over a week, and it feels amazing. Not long ago, I was writing about how I was struggling, how I was running out of steam. I am happy to report that those days are over. This installment is a reflection. A reflection of my first semester of Grad School.

My very first semester of Grad school has been quite an adventure. It all started July 28th, when I moved to Norfolk to start my assistantship. I was so excited to get out of North Carolina. I was a fresh college graduate, ready to move on and see what things the world had for me out there. I decided that Grad school was what I wanted to do, because I had loved being an RA so much, I wanted to be able to help students as a career. So that's it. I moved to Norfolk, a place that I had never been all to start over and begin a fresh start.

Two days before I moved, I get a call from my boss, who had decided to move me to a new residence hall. A BRAND new residence hall. The only catch was, it had not yet been completed, so they would be placing me, the Residence Hall Director and about 270 students in a downtown hotel. I was astounded, and I has happy to accept the challenge. But before the semester started, I got to live out of a residence hall and go through my Graduate Assistant Training. Two long weeks of training crawled by, but finally, I found the end of it.

Then our RAs showed up, and we had to train them. Getting to know them was fun, and I believe that he built a strong staff. Then the move came. A few days before the semester starts, and we move to the downtown hotel. This hotel was amazing. For myself, I got a corner room, with a king size bed, and a view of the harbor. It was nice. For about two weeks. Each day, maid service would come in and change our sheets and towels. But being stuck in the same place with the only way to get to campus was to wait for the shuttle bus took its tole over the extent of our stay. It got boring, and monotonous, and I was become very frustrated. I wanted to move back on camps. I was ready. But the bad thing about it was, the completion date was getting closer and closer. Parents weren't getting any happier, although it seemed that the students didn't seem to mind.

Finally the day comes! Our residence hall reached it's completion date, and hall staff had the privilege of being able to move in early. I had a ton of work to do, like training my desk receptionist staff, getting keys ready, and all the great things like that. Somehow, I managed to get it completed. I went to class, and then after class, I got a van, and moved all my stuff in. I literally swung my apartment door open, and scooted all my belongings in, and shut the door. The next few days would be the challenging one. It was the move. Even though I had already moved in, we were faced with the challenge of moving all 270 residents into the brand new building. Here again, we were faced with angry parents, and lost belongings, and "new building bugs." So many students had no internet, no hot water, no power, etc. It was insane.

Finally things start to become settled. Our new building quirks were working themselves out, and things were getting taken care of. Then one night, my boss knocks on my apartment door, and shared with me the new of one of our residents took and intoxicated 4 story tumble in a stair well. Long story short, blood was everywhere, and the incident really shook the morale of the building. Happily, this particular student made a full recovery, and is now back with us in our residence hall.

As things continue to settle, I lay in my bed, on the verge of falling asleep when our fire alarm goes off. Now I'm sure you've read about this, but I feel that it is definitely mentionable. Turns out, it was a sprinkler. Everything was flooded. Well, not everything. But a lot of first floor damage. After the incident settled, and we called it a night. My boss and I did our research. We found our culprits, and have taken the proper legal action. Turns out, over $6000 worth of damage happened that night.

Finally, exams approached. This was it. The first trial of grad school. I'd managed to successfully work my way through the classes and the assignments, but this would do it. I went into my exams feeling quite confident for some, and "iffey" for some of the others. Turns out I didn't do too badly. For my first semester of Grad School, I managed to pull an A, B+, and a B. 3.4 GPA for my first semester of Grad School. I was quite happy.

So as my first semester of grad school drew to a close, it had been quite an experience. A hotel, a new building, a stairwell incident, a water sprinkler, and exams. It's been quite a semester, and I can say that I am ready to get the whole graduate career over with.

Runnin' on "E"

I feel as if I am fighting an uphill battle, where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm runnin' out of steam, and my give-a-damn's busted. I'm at the point where I will bullshit my way through an assignment, just so I can call it done. And frankly, I'm perfectly fine with that.

Thanksgiving break was one of the greatest things that has happened to me in a long time. Despite the 6 hour drive, coming home to see my family and my dogs. Two of my dogs in particular were happy to see me. The moment I walked through the front door, after being tackled with a barrage of hugs and kisses from my mother, I sat in the floor for a solid 10 minutes and did nothing but hold and pet my dogs. They were just as happy to see me as I was them. It was one of the greatest things in the world.

Thanksgiving break was also great because of the sabbatical from work that I took. I brought absolutely no work home with me, and left it all back in Norfolk to fend for itself. What I did at home, was sleep in everyday, and when I actually did get up, I did what most rednecks from my area do- make noise. My brother and I both drug out our deer guns. Now, our rifles are sighted in at 50 yards, because, when you're in the thick of the woods, 50 yards is really all you need. Well, we were feeling a bit ambitious, so we took our targets and placed them about 150 yards from where we were shooting. Looking through that scope, that target didn't look any closer, but somehow, I managed to squeeze off two rounds and place them both within an inch of each other inside the target area. Case and point- if you were a deer, you'd be dead. It had been so long since I had actually shot that gun, and I pleasantly surprised myself.

Of course with Thanksgiving, you eat a lot of great food. That was no exception with my break, as I had generous rounds of home-canned green beans, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and of course, turkey. It's just another thing that makes me miss home when I am up here.

It was a short lived three days that I spent back home, and then I had to return to my current existence that resides in Norfolk. Again, I drove a boring 6 hours back to my apartment, only to again, do the normal routine starting Monday- office hours till 3, class at 4:20, Dinner at 7. Homework/TV for the rest of the night.

As this semester winds down, I have all but a few things in my way. A paper and presentation that are due Tuesday. I have a little further to go on these things, but I am anticipating that they will be finished tonight. Then Wednesday brings another presentation that is due, which I will work on (you guessed it) Tuesday night. After that, all I have to do is submit a paper that I've already written, study for exams and then take my exams.

After all is said and done, I am doing nothing but vegging out on my couch, playing video games, and getting ready to close my building for winter break. Like I said, it's an uphill battle that's being fought by someone who's running out of steam.

I gotta keep hanging in there. Just two more weeks. Just a few fumes left.