maxell1313

I'm about to enter my first year of grad school and while I'm excited about the things I'm going to learn and the people I'm going to meet, I'm terrified as well. The I.S. is strong in this one and mainly is due to the fact that I've been out of school for so long. I got my bachelor's over 15 years ago and when I decided to try for a MA I had great support and encouragement from former profs that I'd kept in touch with. It was a great honor to be accepted to the program (I got my BA here), but now I'm absolutely panicking that I'm going to let everyone down, that I won't be able to keep up, that my experience in the "real world" won't help me a jot now, and that the academic world is a foreign language I'll never learn. I'm worried that I'm going to be spending so much time trying to study, or helping out profs in the department (I'm also going to be a grad assistant for four professors...how that happened, I'll never know), that I'm going to drown. I'm trying to be proactive about certain things; namely, I do suffer from depression so I've spoken with my physician about adjusting my medication and I'm also looking into seeing a therapist at the campus health center. I also joined a gym in order to exercise some stress away (that has started to help me already). I'm trying to get as organized as I can, as well as speaking to my profs early to get to know them and what they are like. Is there anything else I can do to help minimize the anxiety I'm feeling? Or is it just one of those things where I'm going to have to walk into the fire and see if I've got fireproof underwear?