Sad to say that this blog is likely to go away soon. Not that I update it much, but I fear it will be even more neglected in a couple weeks.
The cool news that comes with this is that I'm the Graduate Ambassador for my program. I am tasked with blogging once a week about my experiences, plus the inclusion of at least one photo, plus uploading up to 50 photos per week to Flicker. I completed my first assignment recently - a profile of myself plus a self portrait. I'm not sure which one they'll select (I sent them three), but the one above is my favorite. It was supposed to represent what I'm studying and I'm eating an apple! Get it? GET IT? Cause I'm gonna be a teacher!
I had orientation for my program yesterday. The day started off with a meet and greet of all the graduate students. Everyone I met is going back full time like I am, is fully immersed in their area of study, is interesting and excited and passionate and... and. It was a good feeling. The first girl I met is in Creative Writing Nonfiction and lives at Addison and Southport, so I imagine we'll be fast friends.
After the meet and greet they showed us a documentary that a current student submitted to a bunch of competitions (and has been winning all of them). It was 20 minutes long and so beautiful and moving that the moment felt almost like an out of body experience. Like... holy shit. I'm here. There are creative people all around me who want to work and make genius things.
They also showed us videos of Manifest and the Graduate Arts Project called PGA (Please Generate Art). It's an 18 hole fully interactive golf course and they build full sets, lighting and install various kinds of art installations. Including performance art. I'm likely going to apply to be involved and see if I can sponsor a shadow puppet hole. They said they had over 2,000 people attend the show last year (it's inaugural show) and it will also be a great way to meet more people across departments.
The meeting with my personal program was very intensive, but exciting. We will be starting to think about our student teaching experience starting this fall and will immediately start doing field observations with tasked objectives. There is also a new program called, "Scientists for Tomorrow," which is an after-school program focused on teaching students about sustainability and alternative sources of energy. They received a grant to run it and no science experience necessary, so they are calling all education students to get involved immediately. I guess the students who were involved with it last year (before they got their grant) all got teaching jobs right out of the gate because of the science teaching experience on their resume. None of them are teaching science or pursuing it, but schools want people with science experience. I'll likely sign up for one day a week.
That means with my classes three days a week (10 hours), the grad ambassador hours I gave as my availability (3 hours), nannying (30 hours), and the science teaching job (an hour and a half)... I will be running back and forth between class and jobs for about 44 hours per week. And that doesn't include the field experience I'll be assigned each week (who knows how many hours) and all of the homework I'll have. So. I guess I should get my affairs in order and say goodbye to all of my friends now.
So this fall, winter and spring will be busy. Next summer I won't be nannying or any other type of job - I'll just be focused on school. And next fall I'll likely line up a tutoring gig, hopefully keep the ambassador gig, and if I like the science job hopefully get more hours doing that. All of that leading up to my 14 weeks of student teaching. And yes, I know it's crazy to be thinking about what jobs I'll have next fall.... but at this point I HAVE to have a plan for how I'll be bringing in a bit of an income while garnering sweet cred for my resume.
I feel like this week will be my farewell to summer. I'm lucky that this summer has been so sweet to me. It's easily been the best summer of my life. I've never had more fun, felt more independent or confident in my choices. It's been really excellent. We leave for Minnesota on Thursday night and I'll get to spend my last weekend of freedom with my best friends Annie and Brian. I don't think it could get much better than that.
Oh. Also. I won't be able to blog about my weight on my other blog, so... I've lost 29.6 pounds since I started this journey in June. I feel pretty good about that. I intend to keep on trucking through my graduate program. Honestly, I won't have time to eat anyway. :) I do have a very specific plan that I've laid out and Dan knows about because it feels like it's going to have to be that way if I want to continue to be successful. Luckily, the nanny job does give me time to exercise, either with the babies on a walk or while they sleep to an exercise tape. I'm glad that I'll have that built in time in my schedule. It seems like it's going to be necessary.
Okay. Here we (almost) go!
