Fall 2012 Semester Recap

People are always asking what exactly I "do" or they dismiss me as "merely" being a student.  Sometimes it's hard to explain, but here's a little recap of what this fall semester looked like:

Commitment One:  Graduate Student

• This was my last semester of coursework for my PhD.  I took three classes and each met once per week - one on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday morning.  The three courses were: Epochs of Literary Criticism, The San Francisco Renaissance (independent study), and Composition Pedagogy.  This was (and is) certainly my number one priority

Commitment Two: Adjunct Instructor

• I had tried not to tell too many people that I was doing this while I was doing it... but... I taught three classes this semester.  Three.  I know.  I am insane.  One was a writing class and the other two were literature classes.  I still have a few final exams to grade for the literature classes, but I am extremely happy to have a break from teaching for a month.

Commitment Three: Resident Coordinator

• This commitment was the hardest for me because it meant that I had to switch gears from the academic mode of higher education to the student affairs mode.  This ate up lots of precious hours that could have been spent reading, studying, or grading.  And while I like working with students in this capacity, I feel infinitely more comfortable in the classroom.

Between these three commitments I was easily working 80 hours a week.  Right now I feel tired and rundown, but the uplifting news is that spring semester will be much easier.  No one said this pursuit was going to be easy, and it's not -- there are lot of balls in the air all the time, but I wouldn't trade this life for anything else.