School/Life Update
Class has been extremely amazing. It's confirmed two things that I thought might be true but wasn't completely sure. #1- I'm really smart. #2 - this field of international aid is absolutely what I want to devote the second half of my life to.
No one likes a bragger so I'll leave #1 alone. And for #2, I'll just say that this class has helped with the adjustment of getting back into the swing of things and has greatly informed my search for a Master's program for next fall. Hopefully, I'll be able to get into a program that not only is the correct degree for the future work I want to do but also is a good fit for me and how and what I want to study.
The class' main grades are two group presentations, a major paper, and a final exam. I'm finished with both presentations, although that whole process was an exercise in frustration. Seriously, *I* should have been nominated for a peace prize with the diplomacy I was brokering in my particular group. Fortunately, everyone is ridiculously smart and works really, really hard so the presentations went well. Next up is the major paper which should be 18-25 pages with at least 20-25 works cited. Again, I haven't written a paper since the late nineties and definitely nothing of this caliber since I was a junior at Hume-Fogg (go Blue Knights). It's been a pressure cooker. The paper is due in a little under two weeks. And I'm noticing somethings about my study/work habits. Remember when I said I never learned to study? I didn't! And so now that I'm in crunch time, my schedule SHOULD be early morning work-out, work, library. I've learned that I can maintain that for about two and a half days before I revolt, eat an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers and turn my brain off with some Scandal (Have you guys seen this show? It's really good.) I listened to a quick podcast about how to study and how to do time management so that I can still see family and friends socially. Right! Not happening. Clearly this guy doesn't know my life! Whatever!! But he did mention something about knowing how and when you need to recharge. So maybe that's what I'm doing? It's just super frustrating not being able to make the automatic switch from having loads of free time and doing whatever I want to spending every awake moment doing something productive. Why can't I just do it!
But I am getting things done and I will write this paper and hopefully, probably it will be decent enough to see me through. Then, I have the eighteen-hour final. A final that takes eighteen hours. Eighteen of them. I can't even deal with that until I finish this paper. And while I do rebel against my own self with gaps of time of inefficiency, overall I am WAY more productive in many areas of my life. So it's fun to see that.
And suddenly I am all about the pod-casts. I love them. So much information and since I have about a 40 minute commute both ways, plenty of time to learn things. BBC's Global News, Get it Done Guy's tips, Stuff You Should Know. I've tried quite a few and I find I'm very impatient with people just talking. You must give me information I do not already possess. Practical, applicable or fascinating. One thing that was incredibly applicable was how to not procrastinate on large projects you don't want to do. I have several work things that hang over my head. They don't really have deadlines, they are just things I should do to make the world (or rather our department) better. But I've been putting them off because, who has the time? The tip from one of the pod-casts was work on it for fifteen minutes only. Then make sure you stop. By working on it for fifteen minutes, I'll make steady consistent progress. Obviously this does not apply to my paper, but I'm not procrastinating on that. But getting caught up on all my contact reports?? Yes. Applicable.
Ok, that's all I have for you people at this time. Carry on! And enjoy my new favorite thing, Lorde. This song is highly apropos. be forewarned, it has a bad word in it.
No one likes a bragger so I'll leave #1 alone. And for #2, I'll just say that this class has helped with the adjustment of getting back into the swing of things and has greatly informed my search for a Master's program for next fall. Hopefully, I'll be able to get into a program that not only is the correct degree for the future work I want to do but also is a good fit for me and how and what I want to study.
The class' main grades are two group presentations, a major paper, and a final exam. I'm finished with both presentations, although that whole process was an exercise in frustration. Seriously, *I* should have been nominated for a peace prize with the diplomacy I was brokering in my particular group. Fortunately, everyone is ridiculously smart and works really, really hard so the presentations went well. Next up is the major paper which should be 18-25 pages with at least 20-25 works cited. Again, I haven't written a paper since the late nineties and definitely nothing of this caliber since I was a junior at Hume-Fogg (go Blue Knights). It's been a pressure cooker. The paper is due in a little under two weeks. And I'm noticing somethings about my study/work habits. Remember when I said I never learned to study? I didn't! And so now that I'm in crunch time, my schedule SHOULD be early morning work-out, work, library. I've learned that I can maintain that for about two and a half days before I revolt, eat an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers and turn my brain off with some Scandal (Have you guys seen this show? It's really good.) I listened to a quick podcast about how to study and how to do time management so that I can still see family and friends socially. Right! Not happening. Clearly this guy doesn't know my life! Whatever!! But he did mention something about knowing how and when you need to recharge. So maybe that's what I'm doing? It's just super frustrating not being able to make the automatic switch from having loads of free time and doing whatever I want to spending every awake moment doing something productive. Why can't I just do it!
But I am getting things done and I will write this paper and hopefully, probably it will be decent enough to see me through. Then, I have the eighteen-hour final. A final that takes eighteen hours. Eighteen of them. I can't even deal with that until I finish this paper. And while I do rebel against my own self with gaps of time of inefficiency, overall I am WAY more productive in many areas of my life. So it's fun to see that.
And suddenly I am all about the pod-casts. I love them. So much information and since I have about a 40 minute commute both ways, plenty of time to learn things. BBC's Global News, Get it Done Guy's tips, Stuff You Should Know. I've tried quite a few and I find I'm very impatient with people just talking. You must give me information I do not already possess. Practical, applicable or fascinating. One thing that was incredibly applicable was how to not procrastinate on large projects you don't want to do. I have several work things that hang over my head. They don't really have deadlines, they are just things I should do to make the world (or rather our department) better. But I've been putting them off because, who has the time? The tip from one of the pod-casts was work on it for fifteen minutes only. Then make sure you stop. By working on it for fifteen minutes, I'll make steady consistent progress. Obviously this does not apply to my paper, but I'm not procrastinating on that. But getting caught up on all my contact reports?? Yes. Applicable.
Ok, that's all I have for you people at this time. Carry on! And enjoy my new favorite thing, Lorde. This song is highly apropos. be forewarned, it has a bad word in it.
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