*Pictured above glittery udders on display in front of the quirky Papermoon Diner in Baltimore. This picture has nothing to do with any of the below narrative, but figured my day could use a little bling even if on a cow’s udders.
Dude I am absolutely traumatized and trepidatiously excited after today’s orientation for grad school. It lasted from 8:30-3:30 pm, essentially an entire work day on a Saturday and the last ‘free’ weekend before class starts too…I had my Sunday all planned out, I was gonna go hang with the fam, chill out and just enjoy my day. Had I not attended today’s orientation I most certainly would have played myself because it turns out I need alllll day tomorrow to do the following:
- Set up my online classroom, which I assumed (we know what they say about that) I would not be a part of being in the world of creative writing-WRONG!
- Set up my blog page in the classroom, which is essentially my journal documenting the fact that I’m reading required books and pointing out some quotes and shiny little gems along the way.
- Now that I have access to my syllabus from one class I need to read this syllabus AND print it out so I can underline and highlight and ensure I’m not ‘that student’ who is fucking up right out of the gates. If there was one theme today, it was do NOT expect any hand holding and if you don’t know you betta ask somebody.
- Oh yeah, and I need to read 3 articles and post a blog about those articles, all in preparation for our first class
So why, you say, are you so surprised? Well it’s like this, intellectually-yeah I knew what to expect in an abstract sense: lots of work, long hours of reading and writing, less social time, etc. I gotta say now that everything is crystal clear and all the fog and smog has been lifted I can see this for what it really is, I am now Frodo Baggins on my quest to drop the ring in Mordor…seriously Gollum is going to be my desire to go out, which incidentally I don’t do a lot of now but in typical ‘I can’t have it, now I want it’ fashion or more accurately my desire to sleep or go on an HBO series bender. Look I’m ready for this, I’ve spent the last few years feeling like my brain has flatlined so I know this is what I want AND what I need…today was just really long and I was given a lot of information that was quite valuable so my time was well spent today.
After the orientation I busted out onto the street and headed home, there was a happy hour scheduled so everyone could get to know eachother a little better, but I was so burnt to a crisp (and low on funds) that I broke off from the group and walked home at a steady but slow pace, gradually allowing the day to roll off my back and dissipate behind me down Maryland Ave. When I got home I shed my hot ass jeans (today was gray and dreary yet humid), slapped on some shorts and headed to my family’s house to decompress. I got to chat with my Mom and brother; allowed my nieces to poke, prod and massage me (that was pretty awesome); and was a child again eating Mom’s cooking: ghoulash and homemade skillet cornbread. I even went with my sister-in-law and brother to the grocery store (always better when you have company) and picked up a few items so I don’t have to leave my apartment tomorrow. From what I hear it’s going to rain tomorrow, so I’m going to make breakfast, wash dishes, get some work done and then watch an afternoon movie…somewhere in there I’ll cook and prepare for Monday which heralds the beginning of the busy season at my job and my first day of graduate school. Wish me luck!
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