I decided to go to graduate school to pursue a career in higher education. I spent months preparing my resume and personal statement, aced my Skype interview and was officially offered a position within the program and an assistantship on campus all before February of this year. Then I waited for August, because that was when I was able to move across the country (Kentucky to Kansas) and into my housing assignment to start training, three weeks before classes begun. Now, classes have begun…
What I expected of grad school was a lot of discussion based classes, a lot of reading and even more writing. What I found was the opportunity to fine tune my time management skills to balance my 20 hours a week assistantship, (only) three graduate classes, serving on the alumni board for the local chapter of my national fraternity and being active in a graduate student organization that is focused on my program. I even joined Odyssey Online, because what’s another plate to balance, right? I have a suspicion that I’m just a glutton for punishment.
Not going to lie, I’m a little overwhelmed (especially since one of my classes has more projects due than weeks in the semester) but I’m also super excited about everything. I get the opportunity to work alongside student employees and leaders, professional staff that has years of experience that I can hopefully absorb through osmosis and a cohort that’s weird and unique and, most importantly, here for me as a support structure who is also juggling everything in hopes of surviving the two-year program. It’s going to fly by, from what I can tell, between the events I’ll be organizing and/or working, class work, reading 100+ pages a week, writing at least one paper a week and attempting to have a social life, but it’s going to be an experience that will help me develop into the professional that I want to become after graduation.
This week was a lot to process. I spent two nights working programs, three nights in a three-hour class, got over two hundred pages assigned to read and had three papers or projects assigned. Exhausting would be an understatement, and my first paper is due tomorrow; it’s only three to five pages single spaced, so it’s comparatively short.
This is nothing like my undergrad syllabus week or classes, where I could easily just show up mildly prepared, absorb some information or memorize some facts and continue to the next class or hang out with friends in the student union. This is a complete change of how I’m going to have to prepare for the next two years, and I didn’t think it would have been such a major change since I received a relatively challenging major as an undergrad (mathematics) but … it’s going to be a lot of time management. Good thing I backed a Kickstarter project that promised to get to amp up my organization skills, because I’m going to need it once I can get it printed out and bound.
It is a lot, but I’m happy to be here. Happy to see what these two years will teach me. Happy to experience a new place to live and grow. Happy to fail, it’s inevitable with the bar set so high, but it will teach me about my limitations and reinforce that I am not invulnerable and perfect. Happy to work alongside professionals who have varied experiences and teaching styles. Happy to get the opportunity to learn and grow and become more than who I was when I drove here three weeks ago.
Many people have to do this in order to start their career, I’m lucky enough to get to do this!
