One Year Down, a Few to Go
Next year, I’ll be spending lots of time in the library. After my first year in grad school, I’m exhausted. I’ve been sick since school was out with this darn cough and something like bronchitis. The big question, do I push too hard?
But, my grades were posted last night. I got a B+ and B- for the Fall Semester and I know that was pretty good for my first semester in 37 years, but I also know, that for a grad student, it wasn’t great. However, I’m not your typical grad student. I’m plan to teach and write. I’m not looking for tenure. In fact, I don’t think I’ll live long enough to be a tenured professor, anyway. That’s not to be negative, it’s just facts and mathematics. I’ll be 58 years old this year. I’ll be about 62 when I finish and then I’ll teach and write as long as I can after that.
For the year, I’ve got a 3.32 GPA and a 3.5 for the Spring Semester.
This semester, I did better. I received an A- in Judicial Politics and a B+ in U. S. Presidency. Better grades all the way around and the next step is to go by my professors offices and talk to them about my papers and my grades. I think I am writing for class a little less like a journalist and a little more like a researcher. Also, I have 4 papers I’ve written this year in the “long form” and a half a dozen short papers reviewing reading we’ve done in class. Three of the research papers and literature reviews I can use towards my dissertation. I think it’s been a pretty good year.
It’s been fun and challenging. I’ve loved the people I’ve met in class, the professors who know so much and getting to be on campus a few days a week. I’m a little worried my children think I’m spending too much time in school. I have responsibilities as a mother and grandmother, not to mention as a staffer for a U. S. Senator and a wife. I do volunteer work, also, but that’s the area that has been reduced the most to make room for school. While I’m in school, I have a lot on my plate. I think we’ve discussed this before, I am a stress magnet. I always have been. However, I have from now until the end of the summer to ponder that and to make sure I’m making everyone happy.
There’s the old Ricky Nelson song, “Garden Party.” What’s the line, “If you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
So it’s onward to next semester and the dreaded math class–it’s not just a math class, it’s a methods class, but it might as well be a math class–and a class on legislative process. One class will kill me, one will be a little easier.
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