8/10 in --
- Aug. 10, 2017, 1:39 p.m.
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- Public
I am rather stressed out, as usual!
Life is busy and I can barely keep up. I’m always exhausted. I’m pretty damn sick everyday too, so that isn’t helping.
Cannon’s first day of kindergarten is next week, on Tuesday. I’m already crying! We went to his classroom yesterday to drop off school supplies and meet the teacher. He has a student teacher for a couple of months, as well as his regular teacher.
I signed up to volunteer in the classroom and go on a field trip in February (who knows where I will find the energy/time for this, but I’m determined).
I start my new job on August 21st. My schedule is full days Tuesday and Wednesday, half day Thursday. I’ll do my internship Mondays or Fridays depending on the week. I have class Monday evenings from 5:00 to 7:40. I’ll barely see my kids on Mondays. :( I have Fridays to catch up on homework. I’m basically working full time and getting paid for part-time.
I’m trying to figure out how to organize orientation for the 23rd of August when we don’t have a budget in my student organization yet, and I have no idea what I’m doing. I submitted everything but we’re not all done with the online funding workshop. I finished it today. It’s all very complicated and stressing me out, and I’m basically on my own. I’ve gotten pretty much zero guidance on any of it and I’m frustrated. I think I bit off more than I could chew and I’m regretting it, so I doubt this year is going to be very successful. Oh well. I’ll do my best and that’s all I can do.
At my internship I also don’t have much direction and I never really have, but I only have six weeks left of it. Right now I’m working on putting together a guide for advisors to refer to when they are advising a student who has a disability. I’m also researching graduate retention rates (my internship advisor said he’d give me my school’s info on that, and he never did, so I asked for it). I’ve been looking at other factors that could affect retention rates. I’ve been studying articles. I’m putting together a list of things that could be improved and managed to improve recruitment and retention. I’ve tried to be part of meetings on website changes and the development of an emergency fund for students. I guess I’m doing my best there too.
I’m glad that graduate school has given me completely different opportunities from my undergraduate experience. I feel like I’ve gained a lot more insight into what actually goes on in a work environment – in higher education, or otherwise. You get a job description, then you think of things to do, and you do them. I honestly feel incompetent most days, but I guess that’s all part of it.
I think doing independent research, reading all of these articles, and thinking of realms within the field that need more studies is a good foundation for preparing me to do work in a Ph.D. program, if I get accepted.
Chaosbride ⋅ August 16, 2017