I've come to the following conclusions about being a PhD student:
1.) It's purely glorified/ dignified/ (insert an appropriate word) slavery. You get to do work for your mentor, before you actually start getting fully into your own research, and even after that, it doesn't get any better.
2.) You always have a huge pile of stuff to do! As one ends, u have a zillion others clamoring for ur attention
3.) The work never really ends. Did i say that already.
4.)You start re-thinking ur life, and asking yourself countless times who sent u to enroll in the 1st place. Oh, and then u remember that it's ur never-ending zeal for knowledge plus ur hope that one day you will do some amazing research that will end up saving humanity!
I'll share the others, as i continue on this journey of discovery.
I am supposed to be getting work done. In an attempt to being a very good girl, i bolted out of the house to my lab/office. So far, i've been good. I finished grading and entering the grades for my students. Ah, i need to tell y'all there's a story about that... More on that later. Then i went to Qdoba to get free lunch/dinner, comprising of a burrito and tortilla chips plus soda. All free. Well, not really free 'cos i used my gift certificate i earned. I am catching on fast to this my new life, well it ain't new anymore, 1st year as a PhD student is almost over next week. Whew! I have come to learn that as a grad student, anywhere there's free food on campus, is the spot you should be at. So i was sitting down jejely when our weekly e-newswire was sent to my inbox, and i saw an ad about this doctoral student needing female research participants to complete a survey, and since i fit into the criteria, i went. BTW, i chopped enough insult from my labmate for actually walking 10 minutes in the cold to go do this. It was some kinda survey on HPV vaccine. Anyway, i was given a Qdoba gift certificate for spending 30 minutes of my precious time completing the survey. I have been participating in so many studies, being a "research subject" a.k.a. guinea pig that give incentives (of course, what kind of a person do u think i am?)as long as they're not injecting me or doing some weird stuff to me. Alas! The life of a lowly grad student.
Back to the gist about the grades. I am teaching/ TA'ing a 300 level research writing class in my department this semester, in addition to taking 3 classes, and being a research assistant. I had to grade the last exam and return it to them by yesterday. Long story short, i started grading 5 am yesterday and by 10:30, i was done with about 50 papers (multiple choice, short answer and essay questions). To say, i was being a mother christmas with the grades would be a serious understatement! Anyway, i zipped through them all, looking for the key points. Got to class yesterday, showed the students their grades, only for many of them to be making comments like, "WOW! I actually did better than i thought i would." I just thought to cut them some slack, since this was the last exam anyway, and trust me i have been a "good" (read: hard) grader all semster long. With that being said, some people still banged it.
The parents come into town soon, so i'm abso-freaking-lutely excited to see them. Can't wait! Anyway, gotta get back to work, and then finish typing up my 20-30 page paper by tomorrow. Lord, i need you to pls help me, 'cos i just have zero motivation and stamina right now.
P.S: Excuse the typos, should there be any. Brain's fried and too tired to proofread.
P.P.S: Y'all lurve me too much, right? And if u think i can't speak proper english, good for you.
Gotta go.
I am supposed to be getting work done. In an attempt to being a very good girl, i bolted out of the house to my lab/office. So far, i've been good. I finished grading and entering the grades for my students. Ah, i need to tell y'all there's a story about that... More on that later. Then i went to Qdoba to get free lunch/dinner, comprising of a burrito and tortilla chips plus soda. All free. Well, not really free 'cos i used my gift certificate i earned. I am catching on fast to this my new life, well it ain't new anymore, 1st year as a PhD student is almost over next week. Whew! I have come to learn that as a grad student, anywhere there's free food on campus, is the spot you should be at. So i was sitting down jejely when our weekly e-newswire was sent to my inbox, and i saw an ad about this doctoral student needing female research participants to complete a survey, and since i fit into the criteria, i went. BTW, i chopped enough insult from my labmate for actually walking 10 minutes in the cold to go do this. It was some kinda survey on HPV vaccine. Anyway, i was given a Qdoba gift certificate for spending 30 minutes of my precious time completing the survey. I have been participating in so many studies, being a "research subject" a.k.a. guinea pig that give incentives (of course, what kind of a person do u think i am?)as long as they're not injecting me or doing some weird stuff to me. Alas! The life of a lowly grad student.
Back to the gist about the grades. I am teaching/ TA'ing a 300 level research writing class in my department this semester, in addition to taking 3 classes, and being a research assistant. I had to grade the last exam and return it to them by yesterday. Long story short, i started grading 5 am yesterday and by 10:30, i was done with about 50 papers (multiple choice, short answer and essay questions). To say, i was being a mother christmas with the grades would be a serious understatement! Anyway, i zipped through them all, looking for the key points. Got to class yesterday, showed the students their grades, only for many of them to be making comments like, "WOW! I actually did better than i thought i would." I just thought to cut them some slack, since this was the last exam anyway, and trust me i have been a "good" (read: hard) grader all semster long. With that being said, some people still banged it.
The parents come into town soon, so i'm abso-freaking-lutely excited to see them. Can't wait! Anyway, gotta get back to work, and then finish typing up my 20-30 page paper by tomorrow. Lord, i need you to pls help me, 'cos i just have zero motivation and stamina right now.
P.S: Excuse the typos, should there be any. Brain's fried and too tired to proofread.
P.P.S: Y'all lurve me too much, right? And if u think i can't speak proper english, good for you.
Gotta go.
3 comments:
LOL at being a serious blogger. Doubt if we can all do ''it'' seriousky anymore. Have been struggling with blogging.
Give mer love to the fam wen they come arounnd my darling.
Grad schl is def not easy
it is more than 6 weeks babes wsup?
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