Cat_Robutt

@pterosaur Your suit is definitely Iron Man levels of awesome. That suit-per cool (gah, that's an awful pun but I couldn't help myself). @Neist I do hope to keep in touch! This site has sometimes been all that has kept me afloat during this process. I've never made friends online before, but it is very exciting and fun! There's good people here. And @BooksCoffeeBeards we've been getting rid of most of our things, too! We may have jumped the gun a bit, because we have about two weeks left and don't have a table or chairs...so we've been sitting on the floor cross-legged and hoping for the best! It's been fun for me, getting rid of furniture to see what we deem essential v. things we just have around. My trunk is already loaded up with much of the things we hope to move, so I think it's good so far. Coming from my background, having fewer things that get used often is seen as more sensical than having a whole lot of stuff that gathers dust. My in-laws are hoarders, though, and we're spending June with them and I'm already dreading it.

Sorry I've been absent all week...we're prepping for our move and there is so much adulting that has to be done! Getting the cars checked, getting our cat immunizations, changing addresses with my two jobs, selling the last few pieces of furniture, scheduling our extended visits with relatives. To top it off, one of my closest friends is getting married, and I'm the maid of honor! All the adult responsibilities! It's all very exciting, though. @gingin6789 congratulations!!! That is very cool! If there's any way I can help out, even informally, please let me know? And @pterosaur you can't just casually mention "exoskeleton programming" without telling us all about this awesome research you're doing! Happy almost Friday, y'all!

My pard just introduced me to this show! I keep hoping Paris and Rory will become friends! For you and @hippyscientist Penn State's insurance is heavily subsidized (80%) and is the equivalent of a "gold" plan; it's a PPO through Aetna and many services are low-cost or free if done on campus. In addition, vision and dental are a small addition, and you can add on family members as dependents for not too much more. It is a really fantastic deal!

Reading all the posts from yesterday is like another reminder of the weird internet kinship I feel with y'all...when it comes to human-human interaction, I'm a natural introvert who was forced into being an extravert by a super extraverted parent. So I can interact with people and ask the right questions, but I would still much rather listen than talk. I still suck at phone calls, and have a handful of very close, and extremely loyal, friends. If I'm your friend, I'm your friend for life--I'll bring you food when you're sick, FaceTime you when you're down, and be threatening to people treating you poorly. But I'm also the kind of person who offers solutions when someone presents me with a problem, so people who kvetch a lot dislike me because complaining over and over without doing anything about it doesn't make sense to me. With plushies, my pard and I have matching red panda ones we got when we were living on opposite ends of the country. Whenever we would FaceTime or Skype, the pandas would have to say hello to each other too.

@MarineBluePsy awwww that's a bummer! Would the coverage be better under the Affordable Care Act, or is program coverage the end-all be-all?

@sjoh197 Your cats are beautiful!!! @hippyscientist Thanks for your advice! I did decide 12 hours was TOO much my first semester, and as @AP mentioned, I think getting involved in other activities will be a boon. What are some programs/activities/things you all would like to do while getting your degree that may not necessarily be coursework? @Pink Fuzzy Bunny You get to choose whether to be a TA?! What universe is this? What happens if you say yes/no?

@MarineBluePsy I did the same thing!!! Insurance is really important! It's such a relief to know that if something DOES happen, you have options.

Caaaaaaats!

@Neist luckily it is part of my focus! I wrote my thesis on gendered portrayals in comic book film adaptations, and have written on comics, so this course will help reintroduce me to current scholarship I've missed the past two years as an adjunct teaching Public Speaking instead of researching! Ooh.....when we all start our semesters, how cool would it be to discuss what we're learning? We would have to break it down and make it simple as if we were prepping for a conference! (Maybe only I am excited by that?)

It is definitely an unknown @runjackrun and @MarineBluePsy....I've lived far removed from family and friends for the past two years, and it can be stressful during emergencies. As a result, I've had to do a lot of independent research and gather my own kind of support network for different kinds of weird things, from medical (like emergency wisdom teeth removal) to personal (depression). At your new program, seek out medical professionals sooner rather than later in case of that kind of emergency, and see if you can find counselors, psychologists, even clergy in case of a professional yet also personal difficulty. And making friends outside of your cohort can also be helpful, like a book club, hiking group, and/or another graduate group.

Oooooh I would love to hear more about this litter box! No, I'm not joking As for the work/life balance, there's the solid 50/60/80 hours, but some of it depends on how efficiently you work––I like to take breaks, grab coffee, and walk around; some of my classmates in grad school would just sit for 6 hours, not eat, not leave their desks, to write. So their 6 hours was more like 9 for me. However, making time for yourself is very important––cutting back on sleep, some form of relaxation, exercise, etc. can leave one feeling ill, which takes even more time away from efficiently working! It can turn into a vicious cycle quite quickly. Even though it seems most first-years are pushed to reach exceedingly high standards (sometimes impossibly high), be sure to carve out time for you even if you have to force yourself to take care of yourself! On an unrelated note, a professor for my program emailed me a class recommendation....feminist comics and cartoons 1970s-2015! This prof saw it, knew I would be interested, and was kind enough to send me a note about it...it really made my day and made me feel like this program really cares about my academic area of interest.

@juilletmercredi

@sjoh197 I've never heard of Glitchmob....I'm so behind on the times! Would you ever go see a symphony or opera instead?

It's great to know returning to school is a commonality––most of my cohort will be just finishing their masters, while I've been working since completing mine two years ago. Age-wise, though, I will still be on the younger end. My college has a wide range of ages, from students with human children to middle-aged students returning to realize a lifelong dream to people slightly younger than me who are trying to figure out the whole academia bit. There's so many perspectives from which to learn. I spoke to a current student about being apprehensive returning to academe, and they told me it does take time to catch up, but to be unafraid of asking questions even if you are worried you will look dumb; no one will judge you for your learning style and if they do, best to not collaborate with them. This student also said to learn about your classmate's strengths and collaborate with them, offering them co-authorship for a shared research paper or conference presentation. Approaching classmates as professional colleagues can also tamp down imposter syndrome with you comparing yourself to them as well as making it easier to collaborate with classmates you may not necessarily love as people, but can work with as professionals.

@juilletmercredi I'm glad everything went well, and am also glad you have a dog named Zelda! The geeky part of me is hoping she's named after the Legend of Zelda...

Hey @trulytriaxial, have you checked out the off-campus site Penn State curates? In addition, the graduate housing on-campus might be an option if you don't have pets––they may be able to set you up with a roommate? And current graduate students are a fantastic resource if you haven't already spoken to them.

@Need Coffee in an IV best of luck! It's weird being on the other end, giving finals! All of my students are at the stage of "Oh, you look so nice today! Oh, you're so cool!" And I'm sitting here thinking "Y'all trying to butter me up like @hippyscientist's crumpet up there....nah, nah." @MarineBluePsy I only said cookies because...well, I actually know how to make those! I like baking and pretending I'm an actual pastry chef, and I talk through the recipes sometimes to my cat....yep. @sjoh197 that's all right! If you could attend a concert––all-access, paid for––who would you want to see first?

@Danger_Zone, @knp, and @hippyscientist thank you all so much for your advice and kind words....having safe spaces and support systems is something I'm slowly building into my life, and I will have to try out hatha yoga! I had a really awkward fat-shamey experience trying a yoga studio out here in Los Angeles, so I may have to take it extra slow! I tend to be the person my friends and family go to when they are needing a safe space; I just seem to have a hard time extending that bubble of acceptance to my own self. This also means if I can bring any of you a thermos of hot tea and some cookies (or Digestives!) I'd be so, so happy to do so.

Thank you for your advice! Seeking help from a professional was fantastic for me; what were some of the small adjustments you made, if you don't mind me asking? I know this is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and have been working hard to deal with stress before it gets too overwhelming!

Unrelated, but er, I suppose equally important––I have a really serious subject I trust you all with: during my M.A. I dealt with a combination of depression and bulimia. I've since "recovered," but the thought of managing these has cropped up several times recently. I'm a tad worried I will fall back into these destructive patterns of dealing with stress for my PhD program, and was wondering if anyone on this thread has dealt with similar mental health/physiological issues? I'm so, so sorry if this is TMI; I've just found this site to be incredibly encouraging and helpful during this whole pre-graduate school process and am genuinely curious to know if anyone has advice on this front.

@pterosaur I feel like the odd one out being in a heavily qualitative field here... my program is pretty structured, but our advisors meet with us regularly to assess performance and overall goals. They want to make sure we are meeting the requirements for the program! And we all have to choose a subfield and/or dual doctorate, so I'm hoping to go for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as my subfield. It's been interesting following this thread and realizing my major is really different from some of y'alls; the entire approach is more so collaborative and communicative, which makes sense for mass communications?

@hippyscientist I've heard of the Magician's Guild, but none of the others! I really need to brush up on my YA literature. Why do you find your books embarrassing? They're not, like, Piers Anthony novels, are they? I'm in a similar situation! It's so weird to me that we are moving from a studio into a two-bedroom place with a huge kitchen and free washer/dryer in unit and STILL saving several hundred dollars per month. We'll have an actual bedroom and an actual dining room! The L.A. housing market is not user-friendly.

@janetjanejune And the humidity! There's nothing like a July afternoon when even the mosquitos quit trying. What are some of your fave books? Like @hippyscientist what books are in the book box? For me, my immediate go-to for fiction is Pullman's His Dark Materials; for non-fiction, it's Meehan and Riordan's Sex & Money (on feminist political economy of media).

I second @shadowclaw's advice on starting early! If the property owner/management is open to the idea, trying Skyping or FaceTiming in; it can create a sense of physical proximity and allow all parties to "meet" each other, so to speak, and view the property––that is how I landed our new place in Pennsylvania while still living in Los Angeles. I had to make a lot of calls and send a lot of emails, but it ultimately worked out. Also, as far as nervousness is concerned: it's natural! You're not alone! That doesn't make it better, of course, but it can be helpful just knowing other people are in this same rocky boat as you, and that we all hope to make it all right. If you ever need encouragement, or feel stressed but don't want to talk to someone irl, there's always thegradcafe.