Venting Thread- Vent about anything.

[Danger_Zone]

I feel like my decision to attend school in another country has isolated me from my family. My parents initially blamed themselves for this decision, as they seem to think I am striving to get as far away from them as possible. It's a very stressful household but my decision to go to an American school has nothing to do with this, but I can't seem to convince them otherwise.

Things seemed better until they found out how early I'd have to leave to move out there (school starts in September here whereas I'll be beginning earlier in August) and will probably have to miss my father's birthday. I'm the first of my siblings to be moving out so maybe they're taking it hard but they're making me feel very guilty. 

So instead of being able to talk about how excited I am about school to them I am just kind of keeping it to myself... 

[Paper Moon]

I have a co-worker who keeps insisting that British/Australian people speak completely different English than I do (as an American) and so she'll actually try to correct my English grammar/pronunciation by telling me that British/Australian people say it differently. Not only is this incredibly condescending and annoying, but she's also wrong. I'll tell her "I don't think British people say that," (I even checked with my British friend here, just to make sure, even though what the teacher is claiming is ridiculous and obviously nothing any native English speaker would say. My British friend was even insulted that someone thought she would talk like that.)

 

I'm a native speaker and I know what native English sounds like, even from countries. I never correct her in front of students or try to embarass her and I even give her the benefit of the doubt most of the time that she's not just trying to assert power over me or something, but now her desk is right next to mine and she's driving be bananas.

And it's not only that. She also criticizes everything I do. I really can't stand it. She's not a terrible person, the students like her and I want her to be happy and have a happy life and all of that... I just want her to have a happy life on the other side of the room and not talking to me.

I have 6 more months of this. I might run away to the roof top or to the counseling room (I'm friends with the school counselor) and avoid my desk whenever she is there.

At least amazing, lovely, super awesome-sensei is also now near my desk too. If she weren't here, then I think I'd explode. She's my big sister here and I'm so greatful for her.

And at least chikan/ sexual harassment- sensei has left the school... He grabbed my leg at a work party and made crude jokes before I could get away and cry in the bathroom.

I'll take mildly annoying-sensei over sexual harassment-sensei any day. Especially in Japan where women are expected to laugh at sexual harassment, because it's such a funny joke /sarcasm. I'm so tired of it. Even my friend, the bloody school counselor said, "He's only joking, lighten up." But he always tried these kinds of things with me. He always stood too close to me and made excuses to touch me and  made crude/sexual jokes and asked me my feelings about infidelity while saying terrible things about his wife...  I'm so glad he's gone, but I'm so angry that this kind of thing is allowed to persist.

I recently went to a fertility festival and although giant, detailed penis structures were allowed to be carried through the village square, men were attacking each other with dildos, and people were sucking on penis shaped lollypops, the clitoris on the vulva candy was removed this year, because police think the clitoris is vulgar. Think about that. A part of a woman that gives her pleasure is vulgar, but the penis is not.

 

[kimmibeans]

I can't focus on writing my qualification exam and it is due next Friday! I know that I am procrastinating because of the anxiety that I'm going to fail, so I'm in that line between panicking and giving up. I know that I should be working on it, but I sit down and I'm like "let me do this other thing instead." Now I'm getting further and further down the rabbit hole of anxiety and I don't know what to do. Part of the problem is I know I work better on stuff like this at odd hours of the night, but I have to come to lab so I need sleep. So I keep procrastinating and I can't stop and it feels like a never ending spiral. Now I'm kind of debating sitting down with beer/wine/whisky and just chilling and writing because maybe that will help? I don't know but I just can't focus and it is driving me nuts! I kind of just want it to be over and done with so that I don't have to think about it anymore.

[knp]

Although I'm still a procrastinator, I like these. 

http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html 

http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.html

I've also found that there's a certain level of "I have been completely unproductive today DOOM DOOM DOOM" head-noise that I can't recover from just by getting productive, no matter how much I tell myself that I am now going to sit down right now and do the thing. To short-circuit the DOOM DRUMS, I have to just give up and give myself between two and 24 hours off, depending on how much time I have before the deadline and how long I've been stuck in the loop. These hours are to be spent guilt-free, re-charging and re-setting. I cannot fill those hours with internet browsing, and other, less urgent/important work is limited. Instead, I should focus on making myself food, eating, showering, having tea, maybe calling one family member or friend, and getting a proper night's sleep. TV is sometimes allowed if it's something I'm not going to binge uncontrollably (e.g. the latest episode of a procedural, or the first season of something with eight half-hour episodes). When the four hours or whatever in which I am NOT ALLOWED TO THINK ABOUT THE THING is up, then I get back to it, and the DOOM DOOM is usually quiet enough that I can actually get started pretty quickly.

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

got ignored-dumped by the girl I was dating, I don't know why, and I'm pretty disappointed. Grad school is tough sometimes and it'd be nice to have someone to talk to without fear of being judged, someone that cares. I really cared for her too. I really liked hearing her out about her problems, I never ignored her, and I'd just like some equal treatment. I just hate playing the stupid game where you go by a playbook to poke for maximum response, as if people were robots.

I don't consider myself terrible in social situations or an introvert either, I'm not mean, I know when to give people the space they need and I genuinely care for others. I try to stay healthy, fit and clean. I don't do nice things exclusively for girls I date - alot of people in the department knows me as the guy who'd help others out, whether that's giving a tour for newcomers or just being a listener for other people's problems. I'm not putting anyone on a pedastal or putting anyone down.

I'm just not sure why that's not enough to not get dumped in the rudest way. At least give me the courtesy of a real breakup. It gets extremely tiring to be nice, and be hurt for it. I didn't have any problems with my last breakup because we were upfront and honest about the issues, and that's absolutely fine with me. I am not fine with being treated like trash.

This shit's just getting old, on top of pressures with my experimental research.

Edited April 8, 2016 by SymmetryOfImperfection

[EvelynD]

That happend to me twice! One time during a long distance relationship; after I flew halfway across the globe I found out he decided that a longterm thing was not for him. And he decided that,....8 months before I went to visit him, but didn't care to tell me. And I also learned that in some countries making out with other people is not considered cheating if you are drunk whilst you do it. Right,...

The second time happend a couple of weeks ago, just before I decided to go to gradschool in the US. After a couple of months of dating I noticed that the guy kept finding excuses to bail out on dates. I had a vacation planned so I decided to put the drama aside and deal with it after my holiday. He called me a couple of times during and was full of plans for after my return. Guess what,..I never saw him again. It makes you feel really shitty because you feel like you are not worthy of someone's attention. Hopefully you realize soon that if a person treats people like this, the problem lies with them and not with you. 

I need to vent about the stress that comes with applying to gradschool in the US. I've only been in this proces for a couple of weeks and eventhough I'm working in a niche I have already found 2 potential schools. I like the good feelings that come with this proces, such as getting positive replies from potential POI's (major ego boost, and everybody is so friendly!), scanning craigslist for potential appartments etc. However, then I read on this forum that my top school is one of the most popular in the country. Or an American friend of mine tells me that in California, schools prefer in-state students above international students. And this makes me really insecure!  I have no idea what my 'market value' is so to speak. 
And because it takes so much investigation to locate POI's-schools, my head can get really filled with thoughts and sometimes I feel like it is too much. Luckily at such moments I can turn to my hobby: embroidery (guess why I'm single :P).

[Neist]

So, I'm grading some papers, and I'm pretty sure some of these students were heavily intoxicated when they wrote them. For example, how does someone almost correctly use a comma? Oh, they used a comma, but about two words down further than correctly placed, several words beyond a conjunction. There's also quite a bit of missing words from this paper and several heavily misspelled ones. 

Ergh.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Neist

[Neist]

^{Paper grading.. So bad...}

I'm 100% certain that half of these papers were written amidst drinking binges and completed in under 10 minutes.

[hippyscientist]

1 hour ago, Neist said:

^{Paper grading.. So bad...}

I'm 100% certain that half of these papers were written amidst drinking binges and completed in under 10 minutes.

Things like this make me want to start grading. I'm really curious! Also, I'm interested in seeing what American undergraduates cover vs what I covered, and how the assessment criteria differ. But I can also totally see the flip side of feeling depressed with the upcoming students. Try and stay sane. Maybe if you grade while undergoing a drinking binge yourself it might become more tolerable? (Not that I am suggesting excessive alcohol consumption...)

My vent is a small one today. I start my research at my desk tomorrow. My desk has been officially assigned to me, but because we're midway through the school year, a girl has been sat at my desk since september. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except the computer at my desk is the only one on campus which has the software I need for me to do my research. I'm going to feel like such a bitch asking this poor girl to move.

[Neist]

2 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

Things like this make me want to start grading. I'm really curious! Also, I'm interested in seeing what American undergraduates cover vs what I covered, and how the assessment criteria differ. But I can also totally see the flip side of feeling depressed with the upcoming students. Try and stay sane. Maybe if you grade while undergoing a drinking binge yourself it might become more tolerable? (Not that I am suggesting excessive alcohol consumption...)

My vent is a small one today. I start my research at my desk tomorrow. My desk has been officially assigned to me, but because we're midway through the school year, a girl has been sat at my desk since september. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except the computer at my desk is the only one on campus which has the software I need for me to do my research. I'm going to feel like such a bitch asking this poor girl to move.

Thanks for the kind words! What bothers me about these papers is that they were written for an upper division course. If this were a freshman course, I could comfort myself with the justification that some students received better schooling than others. However, these students have been at this university for at least two years, and this writing would be borderline unacceptable in high school. I didn't have high expectations for writing skill, and I'm shocked. It's pretty rough.

Hopefully this girl is understanding? It's not your fault.  I'm sure it'll be okay!

[hippyscientist]

1 minute ago, Neist said:

Thanks for the kind words! What bothers me about these papers is that they were written for an upper division course. If this were a freshman course, I could comfort myself with the justification that some students received better schooling than others. However, these students have been at this university for at least two years, and this writing would be borderline unacceptable in high school. I didn't have high expectations for writing skill, and I'm shocked. It's pretty rough.

Hopefully this girl is understanding? It's not your fault.  I'm sure it'll be okay!

It never ceases to surprise me at others writing. I was proof-reading a friends essay the other day and it was awful. He's in his last year of undergraduate and applying for medical schools, while I am doing my masters. I honestly wrote better at school. I don't know how we allow people to get through to upper levels of education without a capacity for writing coherently. Good luck with getting through the papers.

Thanks! I think I'm apprehensive because I sat there about a month ago and another student was really accusatory towards me. Just gotta stand my ground but I don't relish it. 

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

On 4/9/2016 at 3:10 PM, EvelynD said:

That happend to me twice! One time during a long distance relationship; after I flew halfway across the globe I found out he decided that a longterm thing was not for him. And he decided that,....8 months before I went to visit him, but didn't care to tell me. And I also learned that in some countries making out with other people is not considered cheating if you are drunk whilst you do it. Right,...

The second time happend a couple of weeks ago, just before I decided to go to gradschool in the US. After a couple of months of dating I noticed that the guy kept finding excuses to bail out on dates. I had a vacation planned so I decided to put the drama aside and deal with it after my holiday. He called me a couple of times during and was full of plans for after my return. Guess what,..I never saw him again. It makes you feel really shitty because you feel like you are not worthy of someone's attention. Hopefully you realize soon that if a person treats people like this, the problem lies with them and not with you. 

I need to vent about the stress that comes with applying to gradschool in the US. I've only been in this proces for a couple of weeks and eventhough I'm working in a niche I have already found 2 potential schools. I like the good feelings that come with this proces, such as getting positive replies from potential POI's (major ego boost, and everybody is so friendly!), scanning craigslist for potential appartments etc. However, then I read on this forum that my top school is one of the most popular in the country. Or an American friend of mine tells me that in California, schools prefer in-state students above international students. And this makes me really insecure!  I have no idea what my 'market value' is so to speak. 
And because it takes so much investigation to locate POI's-schools, my head can get really filled with thoughts and sometimes I feel like it is too much. Luckily at such moments I can turn to my hobby: embroidery (guess why I'm single :P).

Sorry to hear that, thanks for the encouragmement.. Wish you luck. So here's what I know: California public institutions (not Stanford, USC or Caltech) are hard to get into for their ranking because they indeed prefer in-state students. If you wanted to go to Berkeley or UCLA, you should re-evaluate other choices even if those other choices are ranked higher on paper, just because private schools don't have that quota. It is even more true for anthropology, since there are fewer TA positions. Basically, diversify your risk, increase the spread, so that your expected value of acceptances is above 1. Remember that acceptance rates fluctuate year to year too, so you may be a victim of an unlucky cutoff if you don't apply to a large number of schools just because you had bad luck.

[shadowclaw]

8 hours ago, Neist said:

^{Paper grading.. So bad...}

I'm 100% certain that half of these papers were written amidst drinking binges and completed in under 10 minutes.

I definitely understand your pain. My grading as a TA has been all freshman/sophomore writing, which can be a bit rough, but what gets me is the inability of students to follow simple directions. Such as "write out the citation for the paper you are reviewing using the examples above" and then they proceed to write out the citation completely wrong, or "submit a list of changes you made to your paper or lose 50% of the points on the final draft" and a third of the class doesn't do it. Sometimes these things are clearly written in the assignment description, I tell them in class, AND I e-mail them the day before it's due and they still don't follow directions. This term, I decided to do everything electronically since they have to submit their assignments to TurnItIn anyway, and I told this to them on day 1, put it in the syllabus, put it in an e-mail the day before the first assignment was due, and I still had five or six students hand me a hard copy.

As for poor writing skills at upper levels, yeah, it happens. I had a lot of my peers ask me to read through their lit reviews and senior project papers during my final year. Some of them were barely coherent, some were just completely disorganized like they never read or wrote a scientific paper in their life (which is impossible). As a masters student, I took a few combined grad/undergrad courses and had to do peer review in one of them. I ended up reviewing undergrad papers and one of them was pretty terrible for many reasons. I also had a professor in my masters program who for some reason would send out a sheet with the grades for everyone in the class (with our ID #'s instead of names) instead of individually giving us our grades, and it was surprising how poorly some students did on some of the writing assignments.

 

 

[AP]

OK. I am going to use this thread. 

I have had the hardest year of my PhD: exams, prospectus, grants, teaching... I'm almost done, with no grants for next year. But requirements-wise, I am ABD. Yet, I have been having nightmares since I defended the project and I am not sleeping well. WTF body? I am done and you decide that we are bored? Whatever. 

[shadowclaw]

I really hate the quarter system. I've probably complained about this before, but I really do hate it. The fall quarter isn't bad, just a little short. Then there's three weeks off and you're back in the game. Still not a problem. But then there's one week off between winter and spring quarter. Just one. It's like the winter and spring form one 20-week mega semester with spring break in the middle. I want to empty my head and not think about my courses or my dissertation for a few days, but I can't. I feel like I'm working all the time. After this year, it won't be so bad - this year was loaded with courses (12 credits each term). The next few years will be almost entirely thesis credits with occasional courses here and there.

[hippyscientist]

1 hour ago, shadowclaw said:

I really hate the quarter system. I've probably complained about this before, but I really do hate it. The fall quarter isn't bad, just a little short. Then there's three weeks off and you're back in the game. Still not a problem. But then there's one week off between winter and spring quarter. Just one. It's like the winter and spring form one 20-week mega semester with spring break in the middle. I want to empty my head and not think about my courses or my dissertation for a few days, but I can't. I feel like I'm working all the time. After this year, it won't be so bad - this year was loaded with courses (12 credits each term). The next few years will be almost entirely thesis credits with occasional courses here and there.

At least you've had a break - not a long one, but it's there. In theory the quarter system works but in practice it really doesn't. The supposed time off that comes between quarters doesn't happen in my masters. My course is set up in terms - autumn (September - Mid January), spring (Mid January - May) and summer (May - September). It's a one-year course so they expect us to work "10 hours a day, 6 days a week, 48 weeks of the year" (it's a 48 week long course). I get why, but it's incredibly draining. I try to take days here and there to relax but it's tough because you need to be doing that level of work to keep up. It's ridiculous to think that starting my PhD will give me a break (at least the first month) by only having to move, set up in a new location, find my feet, figure out TAing, start classes, fit in in my new lab and pass my drivers test. 

[Loneflier]

<vent> Sorry to bump but I'm pretty pissed at how long UPenn is taking in sending out decisions for the second round. At this point I'm not sure whether to just go ahead with the admits I have right now or wait for it, since it's my top preference. Checking mail 10 times a day is not how I want to spend my days. </vent>

[MangoSmoothie]

3 hours ago, shadowclaw said:

I really hate the quarter system. I've probably complained about this before, but I really do hate it. The fall quarter isn't bad, just a little short. Then there's three weeks off and you're back in the game. Still not a problem. But then there's one week off between winter and spring quarter. Just one. It's like the winter and spring form one 20-week mega semester with spring break in the middle. I want to empty my head and not think about my courses or my dissertation for a few days, but I can't. I feel like I'm working all the time. After this year, it won't be so bad - this year was loaded with courses (12 credits each term). The next few years will be almost entirely thesis credits with occasional courses here and there.

I was about to say I can't imagine what essentially a 20-week semester would feel like, but I'm going to be living it soon, despite being semesters and not quarters! We finish spring semester on May 20th, and start summer semester on May 31st, which goes until August 5th (possibly 12th?). I don't even want to count how many weeks that will be. At least I'll have most of August. My friends and I were thinking of doing a bit of travel in that little break between spring and summer, but I'm starting to think I'd rather stay home and not think about or do anything! It doesn't sound fun to go for 20 weeks without much of a break. I didn't realize how tightly packed the quarter system could be!

My own vent: I don't normally get socially anxious or super self-conscious, but I've been really feeling it these past few weeks. In particular, I've been very self-conscious about my body, and it hit a peak over the weekend. I'd gone social dancing with some friends, and the lessons are fun and so is dancing with my friends. We're all new to the dances, but I got very discouraged when no one asked me to dance (or accepted my offers), yet my friends, who are fit and conventionally attractive, were constantly out dancing with a partner. It could have been a number of reasons why I couldn't get a partner for most of the songs, but it hit me hard and made me incredibly self-conscious. I ended up just sitting around looking bummed after the first hour and a half or so (because I felt bummed!) until my friend came over and told me that I should "smile more and look like [I'm] having fun" in order to get someone to dance with me. Even though I had been, until I wound up feeling so self conscious. It just stung that on top of feeling crappy about myself, she essentially added more blame to me for having a bad time. I know her advice probably came from a good place, but it really didn't help.

[mjdances]

6 hours ago, MangoSmoothie said:

My own vent: I don't normally get socially anxious or super self-conscious, but I've been really feeling it these past few weeks. In particular, I've been very self-conscious about my body, and it hit a peak over the weekend. I'd gone social dancing with some friends, and the lessons are fun and so is dancing with my friends. We're all new to the dances, but I got very discouraged when no one asked me to dance (or accepted my offers), yet my friends, who are fit and conventionally attractive, were constantly out dancing with a partner. It could have been a number of reasons why I couldn't get a partner for most of the songs, but it hit me hard and made me incredibly self-conscious. I ended up just sitting around looking bummed after the first hour and a half or so (because I felt bummed!) until my friend came over and told me that I should "smile more and look like [I'm] having fun" in order to get someone to dance with me. Even though I had been, until I wound up feeling so self conscious. It just stung that on top of feeling crappy about myself, she essentially added more blame to me for having a bad time. I know her advice probably came from a good place, but it really didn't help.

Hey! I've been active in the global lindy hop scene for a while now, and all I can say is try not to worry, and try not to internalize it when you are not asked to dance or when someone turns you down. In my experience, lindy hop scenes can be pretty tight-knit and can seem cliquey or judgmental, but usually the regular dancers are not intentionally trying to shut anyone out. They're just focused on their own good time: they're trying to dance with their friends, or that person visiting from out of town that they haven't seen in months, or to just chill and unwind. It's not being selfish or self-centered or anything, it's exactly what you're trying to do too! If they turn you down or don't think to ask you, it is almost never ever personal. As a follow, I tend to turn down a lot of leads that I don't know or that I haven't seen dance yet, and that's my choice to protect myself. While I believe social dancing is a give-and-take, I ain't got time to manage a jerky leader's energy flow so that my rotator cuff stays in one piece and so we don't end up playing bumper cars with every other dancing partnership out on the floor! 

I know your friend was trying to help, but I don't love the "just smile and look happy!" advice either. I would suggest trying to get to know some people - chat with folks in the dance lessons, or other people waiting to dance along the sidelines of the social dance floor. Is there a bar at your dance venue? Even if you don't drink, buy a soda or a coffee or a seltzer water, and get to know the bartender or the people who hang out by the bar. I love lindy hop, but as I come from a modern dance and ballet background, I forget sometimes about the social part of social dancing, and forget that I have to be a friend to make a friend, as my dear auntie says.

Also, if I can be just a liiiiiiiittle bit catty... if your friends are young, pretty, fit, dancing in the follower's role (which is what I'm getting from the context of your post??? please correct me if I'm wrong!), and getting asked to dance all the time, the odds are pretty good that you don't want to be dancing with most of those leads and that, in the end, your friends didn't want to be dancing with them either. I love my scene and my community, but where there are young women, creeps tend to appear out of the woodwork, and they go for the pretty, young newbies. 

Hope this helps and hope you keep dancing!

[Cat_Robutt]

I'm finishing up my final semester where I'm teaching now before starting my PhD, and it's weird how many students have dropped right before the end of the semester! I teach at 7am, and three students quit showing up last week. We have five class sessions left! And they were like "aw nah I absolutely cannot wake up for five more classes."  

As an undergrad, I was paying for my schooling and there was no way in hell I would have put in almost a semester's amount of worth just to throw it away and make an F in a course. I don't get it, I just don't.

[Neist]

15 hours ago, Cat_Robutt said:

I'm finishing up my final semester where I'm teaching now before starting my PhD, and it's weird how many students have dropped right before the end of the semester! I teach at 7am, and three students quit showing up last week. We have five class sessions left! And they were like "aw nah I absolutely cannot wake up for five more classes." 

As an undergrad, I was paying for my schooling and there was no way in hell I would have put in almost a semester's amount of worth just to throw it away and make an F in a course. I don't get it, I just don't.

Have you ever calculated how much each class period costs? 

After I did that I never missed a course. It's like burning gigantic piles of money every day.

On 4/11/2016 at 8:29 PM, shadowclaw said:

I definitely understand your pain. My grading as a TA has been all freshman/sophomore writing, which can be a bit rough, but what gets me is the inability of students to follow simple directions. Such as "write out the citation for the paper you are reviewing using the examples above" and then they proceed to write out the citation completely wrong, or "submit a list of changes you made to your paper or lose 50% of the points on the final draft" and a third of the class doesn't do it. Sometimes these things are clearly written in the assignment description, I tell them in class, AND I e-mail them the day before it's due and they still don't follow directions. This term, I decided to do everything electronically since they have to submit their assignments to TurnItIn anyway, and I told this to them on day 1, put it in the syllabus, put it in an e-mail the day before the first assignment was due, and I still had five or six students hand me a hard copy.

As for poor writing skills at upper levels, yeah, it happens. I had a lot of my peers ask me to read through their lit reviews and senior project papers during my final year. Some of them were barely coherent, some were just completely disorganized like they never read or wrote a scientific paper in their life (which is impossible). As a masters student, I took a few combined grad/undergrad courses and had to do peer review in one of them. I ended up reviewing undergrad papers and one of them was pretty terrible for many reasons. I also had a professor in my masters program who for some reason would send out a sheet with the grades for everyone in the class (with our ID #'s instead of names) instead of individually giving us our grades, and it was surprising how poorly some students did on some of the writing assignments.

Thankfully, a lot of the feedback I've given has been listened to. Many of the students have corrected their previous essay's faults, be it through serendipity or dedicated effort. Either way, I won't complain.  

The faculty member I'm grading for told me he's only given out a handful high A papers in a decade. At first, I was shocked. I mean, I've gotten high A papers, although not from him (I've never had a class with him). I don't consider myself an amazing writer, but it's surprising how well one can polish bad writing; it's amazing what some elbow grease can do. Now that I've graded papers, I'm pretty sure that 90% of the class never expends any real effort. Most of the papers I grade could have easily jumped a letter grade if they just let someone who was good at writing revise it. Would have taken all of an hour's effort.

[Danger_Zone]

I'm finding it really bothersome that it's actually frustrating and tiresome trying to find volunteering opportunities. I just wanted something to do in the area for a few months before moving away for school, but it seems that nobody is willing to take you if you can't commit multiple months, often 6 or more. I would have looked into volunteering much sooner than a few short months before leaving, but I was to be interviewed by a representative of what I considered the coolest history-related volunteering experience I could find (local genealogical research)... but things seemed very disorganized, an interview was scheduled but he was a no show and has not gotten back to me since. So maybe it's best I am not volunteering there if they can't even give me a few minutes out of their day to interview me, but now I'm kind of stuck doing nothing, and it's too late to do any sort of school-related volunteering because classes are almost over.

[Need Coffee in an IV]

@Danger_Zone I originally was going to have another internship at the museum I worked/volunteered at for the past 2 summers but I haven't heard anything about whether I got funding or not. So I'm assuming that I won't be interning there. Instead I'll help my boss/mentor for a month before I move. I want my museum to be completed as soon as possible! I hope I can see it again in the fall when I'm in the area for a wedding. But yeah I get wanting to do something. I like a week of doing absolutely nothing but anymore than that and I start to get restless.

[Danger_Zone]

@Need Coffee in an IV I feel the same way! It's too bad when plans you thought you had fall through. I took a break after I graduated and now I'm restless as well and very eager to begin school again. At least going to grad school is an official thing now and I can begin planning that.

Working at a museum sounds awesome. Although I didn't end up taking that kind of path in my studies I've always loved to visit them. I'm a big fan of history museums and art galleries.

[Need Coffee in an IV]

@Danger_Zone I'm finishing up undergrad so there is things I need to do and I'm just ignoring them at the moment . My BS is in geology and I would like to specialize in community outreach and dealing with how museums could/can they have the same impact as popular culture does on the public regarding the image and conception of science. Supppper rough idea but I'm hoping it can actually be a good one