Bopie5

Congrats @Englishtea1!!!!  I'm so glad the first result on here is an acceptance.  Looking forward to hearing what other programs you get in to!
Have fun, @Bopie5, I've never heard of that band, gotta check them out after seeing how much my fellow gradcafs love them.

This is totally unrelated, but I just got tickets to see my favorite band in April! Having something to look forward to on the other side of whatever happens with decisions has put me in a really good mood this morning.

i am so jealous you get to see the 1975. they're my go-to jam music. 

Idk about all of you but I’m getting pretty tired of the fact that I experience time passing at a normal rate! Wish I could just KNOW decisions already and move on with my life one way or another.

@The Wordsworthian The 1975! I'm so excited--their new album is insanely good. Lots of really interesting juxtapositions both lyrically and musically. I'm going with 7 of my friends and we're gonna be in the pit!

It's about that time I suppose! I was notified via email from the chair of graduate studies of my acceptance to U of Illinois- Urbana Champaign PhD program...."champaign" befits this evening's festivities for me! Good luck to everyone...it's getting real!

Hi everyone! Long time lurker here! I posted the UIUC acceptance. Still in utter shock. I applied to many, many programs and I'm surprised that the first one I've heard back from is an acceptance.

@dilby Hahahaha! That killed me. Brought a good bit of laughter to this boring and slow moving afternoon. If only it were so!
In the meantime, just finished submitting some poetry to 3 magazines, and am now headed off to yoga. Anything to speed up the days...
Is anyone else finding that not knowing about grad school is making trying to plan future endeavors increasingly complicated? I was talking to my mom, and realized that if I stay in CA for grad school, I won't want to drive my car back (where my family lives) for the summer, but I also can't assume that I will stay in CA, and therefore cannot buy my plane ticket...

@dilby Hahahaha! That killed me. Brought a good bit of laughter to this boring and slow moving afternoon. If only it were so!
In the meantime, just finished submitting some poetry to 3 magazines, and am now headed off to yoga. Anything to speed up the days...
Is anyone else finding that not knowing about grad school is making trying to plan future endeavors increasingly complicated? I was talking to my mom, and realized that if I stay in CA for grad school, I won't want to drive my car back (where my family lives) for the summer, but I also can't assume that I will stay in CA, and therefore cannot buy my plane ticket...

Idk about all of you but I’m getting pretty tired of the fact that I experience time passing at a normal rate! Wish I could just KNOW decisions already and move on with my life one way or another.

I got you, hold on a sec.

Wow, here we are in mid-late February! You're welcome everyone !!

Idk about all of you but I’m getting pretty tired of the fact that I experience time passing at a normal rate! Wish I could just KNOW decisions already and move on with my life one way or another.

Idk about all of you but I’m getting pretty tired of the fact that I experience time passing at a normal rate! Wish I could just KNOW decisions already and move on with my life one way or another.

Idk about all of you but I’m getting pretty tired of the fact that I experience time passing at a normal rate! Wish I could just KNOW decisions already and move on with my life one way or another.

REAL.
Tbh, since we've all been spending more time talking on here, I've gotten increasingly invested in all of your decisions as well as mine! I can't wait to see where all of you end up, and it's fun to think that maybe some of us would end up in the same programs!

I agree with this. Of my four recommenders for this cycle, three didn't tell me anything about their letters, but one actually sent theirs to me for proofreading! I saw a piece of advice somewhere else on the forum (can't remember where) that said to save all such things (nice emails from profs, students, LoRs, thank you notes, etc) in a folder on your computer, saying that while it may feel self-congratulatory at first, it helps with imposter syndrome, discouragement, and self doubt to have those resources readily accessible and in one place. So @kendalldinniene if you do get to see any of them, make sure you save them!

I agree with this. Of my four recommenders for this cycle, three didn't tell me anything about their letters, but one actually sent theirs to me for proofreading! I saw a piece of advice somewhere else on the forum (can't remember where) that said to save all such things (nice emails from profs, students, LoRs, thank you notes, etc) in a folder on your computer, saying that while it may feel self-congratulatory at first, it helps with imposter syndrome, discouragement, and self doubt to have those resources readily accessible and in one place. So @kendalldinniene if you do get to see any of them, make sure you save them!

Penny’s take IS amaze, what a good analysis!!! Love it when some Halberstam is thrown in  I share a lot of her critiques of the series (esp about the MAGA episode (who thought it was ever an emotionally safe and good choice to make Karamo have to engage with the MAGA guy?!) and the veiled presentation of money as solving all problems, and also the reliance on the “if only we all just talked and met each other in the middle” variety of reconciliation, which ignores systems and power almost entirely) but I also appreciate the joys of it, and the Jonathan of it haha! A flawed work still worth appreciating for sure. 
Also it was ENDLESSLY relatable when Penny said that she enjoys doing power critiques of normal media. As a theory person, my friends are always saying things to me like “You don’t need to analyze it, just enjoy it!” and I’m over here like “Uhhhh analyzing it is part of how I enjoy it.”

YES! I'm literally either apartment hunting near Hyde Park or being like "Hmm, guess it maybe wouldn't be all bad to sit at a desk for 9 hours a day..." and trying to find the pros in not going.
My thesis advisor didn't help much when she put the comment "Cut this section of your thesis--it's an interesting field beyond the scope of this paper. Save it for next year in grad school!" Love to feel affirmed, love to imagine doing research forever, feel sick to my stomach when I think about telling everyone that I got rejected from everywhere...

You're exactly right  I feel lucky to have a very close relationship with Shakespeare because of a regionally famous English department program at UT (with its own cute little Wikipedia page!) where students perform plays in a barn-converted-into-an-Elizabethan-theater in the middle of rural Texas. The alumni community is huge because the program has been going for 49 years and the audiences are pretty huge and really enthusiastic. When they did Cymbeline a couple of springs ago, people literally screamed when Iachimo emerged from the chest in Imogen's room. And (lol) when the shepherd boy emerged from offstage holding Cloten's head. And (lol) when Zeus showed up.
Unrelated to Cymbeline, last spring Winedale did one of the best Midsummers I've ever seen, complete with Hippolyta suggestively delivering the line "I was with Hercules and Cadmus once" to a packed, inebriated audience who had NEVER heard it delivered that way before. It felt like the roof was going to come off of the barn.
 
I hope you both are hanging in there. It's always hard to make a change to the structures of comfort/affection/affirmation that are built into your life--that's clearly one of the reasons this process is so difficult for so many people.
For me, those moments of fear and/or loneliness and/or vulnerability are usually where Miyazaki's films come in to make me feel like, hey, at least this old dude in Japan thinks that the universe errs on the side of kindness to the afraid & downtrodden. I'm sure you have your own sources of comfort, and I hope they're working for you right now (and if you're looking for a new one, try this wonderful film).
......just stay the hell away from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for a little while. It'll be there for you later.  

you are both beautiful individuals and will surely find the right someone for you when the time is right for both of you ❤️ 
 
one way to get out of talking about apps is to announce that you won't talk about apps unless you hear positive news. this has been my strategy this year (and last year), and it's worked well enough for the most part. there's always someone who wants to talk about apps because they have good news. 

I’m an English/Theatre double major and I’m still in undergrad, so theatre stuff is eating up all of my time! For my senior project, I’m directing a piece of devised poetic theatre using poetry by TS Eliot and Anne Sexton as the text, and that is passing the time sooooo quickly. Being in rehearsal every night really makes the days slip by!
Also got a yoga studio membership, and am going to class 3-4 times a week. That helps a lot with self-compassion, relaxation, mindfulness, and also passing the time haha.

I’m an English/Theatre double major and I’m still in undergrad, so theatre stuff is eating up all of my time! For my senior project, I’m directing a piece of devised poetic theatre using poetry by TS Eliot and Anne Sexton as the text, and that is passing the time sooooo quickly. Being in rehearsal every night really makes the days slip by!
Also got a yoga studio membership, and am going to class 3-4 times a week. That helps a lot with self-compassion, relaxation, mindfulness, and also passing the time haha.

REAL.
Tbh, since we've all been spending more time talking on here, I've gotten increasingly invested in all of your decisions as well as mine! I can't wait to see where all of you end up, and it's fun to think that maybe some of us would end up in the same programs!

I found it sad but paradoxically liberating. The sensation of having no obligations to be anywhere or to do anything the first few weeks was sublimely wonderful and terrifying. I'm not likely to ever experience anything like it again. You wont be by yourself for long, as you'll soon be absorbed into your cohort/department.