We've wined, we've waited, now it's time to celebrate 2016

[hippyscientist]

I need to celebrate so I am here. In the past two weeks I've written 15,000 words of work - a 3000 word article, a 2000 word article and a 5000 word research proposal. It's almost done just layout and formatting to go. I cannot verbalise how freaking happy I am! I found enough words  

[Neist]

5 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I need to celebrate so I am here. In the past two weeks I've written 15,000 words of work - a 3000 word article, a 2000 word article and a 5000 word research proposal. It's almost done just layout and formatting to go. I cannot verbalise how freaking happy I am! I found enough words  

Congrats!  

[Need Coffee in an IV]

Sooo I know that people have already talked about how grad school don't care about grades after they accept you, but I want to be validated as well! Physics is the only class I'm slightly worried about, I'm passing but I'm around the C- to C mark. Is that ok guys? All my other grades are at least upper Bs-As. Texas said all they need is my final transcript. If they cared about my final semester grades they would have mention it right?

[MarineBluePsy]

Good grief all week I've had a fire under my ass in terms of spring cleaning/purging in preparation of the big move.  There's the donate pile, the shred pile, the sell pile, the use before I go pile, and the going with me pile.  Well I completely freaked myself out when I opened a box that for the life of me I couldn't remember having or what it might contain.  Turns out it is filled with photos, yearbooks, and undeveloped disposable cameras (good lord remember those?!) from at least 10 years ago and earlier.  I can't remember exactly what happened, but at some point I stopped being the person that had to capture every memory and moment and started being weirded out by that sort of thing.  Now here I am moving clear across the country and having to lug that whole creepy box with me because I can't really dispose of it.  What do people do with that sort of stuff?  Does everyone just spend their entire lives lugging it around if they don't display it throughout their home?

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, MarineBluePsy said:

What do people do with that sort of stuff?  Does everyone just spend their entire lives lugging it around if they don't display it throughout their home?

Yes

[sjoh197]

8 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Good grief all week I've had a fire under my ass in terms of spring cleaning/purging in preparation of the big move.  There's the donate pile, the shred pile, the sell pile, the use before I go pile, and the going with me pile.  Well I completely freaked myself out when I opened a box that for the life of me I couldn't remember having or what it might contain.  Turns out it is filled with photos, yearbooks, and undeveloped disposable cameras (good lord remember those?!) from at least 10 years ago and earlier.  I can't remember exactly what happened, but at some point I stopped being the person that had to capture every memory and moment and started being weirded out by that sort of thing.  Now here I am moving clear across the country and having to lug that whole creepy box with me because I can't really dispose of it.  What do people do with that sort of stuff?  Does everyone just spend their entire lives lugging it around if they don't display it throughout their home?

If the physical paper isn't sentimental, just the memories... you could always either amateur scan the items yourself or take them somewhere to be scanned more professionally. Then you'll have all the memories, but on a card the size of a quarter rather than a box the size of a dog.

[yayspace]

Okay, first I was freaking out about not getting accepted and now I'm freaking out about the idea of moving from Chicago to Louisiana. How do people move across the country?!

[Need Coffee in an IV]

8 minutes ago, yayspace said:

Okay, first I was freaking out about not getting accepted and now I'm freaking out about the idea of moving from Chicago to Louisiana. How do people move across the country?!

They freak out along the way . We moved my boyfriend to Alaska from Virginia and now we are moving from Virginia to Texas. We like to think of it has a productive vacation, yeah we are moving for a reason but we will still stop at parks, tourist sights, etc. We found that its doable to drive 8 hours a day. If we drove more, we will get annoyed/cranky and less than that just extends the trip.

[Need Coffee in an IV]

9 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Good grief all week I've had a fire under my ass in terms of spring cleaning/purging in preparation of the big move.  There's the donate pile, the shred pile, the sell pile, the use before I go pile, and the going with me pile.  Well I completely freaked myself out when I opened a box that for the life of me I couldn't remember having or what it might contain.  Turns out it is filled with photos, yearbooks, and undeveloped disposable cameras (good lord remember those?!) from at least 10 years ago and earlier.  I can't remember exactly what happened, but at some point I stopped being the person that had to capture every memory and moment and started being weirded out by that sort of thing.  Now here I am moving clear across the country and having to lug that whole creepy box with me because I can't really dispose of it.  What do people do with that sort of stuff?  Does everyone just spend their entire lives lugging it around if they don't display it throughout their home?

I don't have a box of any sentimental value, was unhappy growing up, but my boyfriend has a box full of his old IDs, paperwork, etc. He thinks those things are small enough and could still be useful. He has scan things though, so that could be an idea! Our useless but sentimental stuff will be our framed photos, along with our rock samples that we have found during our vacations. We will have a box full of rocks

[hippyscientist]

@yayspace when I moved my ex from NY to CA we sold stuff, put sentimental things in store or with his family and took the rest with us in the van (which we converted into a camper). Like @Need Coffee in an IV we tried to make a bit of an adventure out of it, taking a more circuitous route, staying with friends or in the van as we went. I think the longest day of driving was 14 hours (across texas...that was hell. Started out in College Station, ended up the day in Las Cruces, NM) but we always stopped for food, curious side-trips etc. In terms of stuff, we took very little - just clothes, surfboards, bikes, fishing rods, camping equipment, cooking stuff and a big refrigerated chest for our cold stuff. We also had his mattress on our convertible bed in the back. I mean it's not going to work for everyone, but if you think you'll use a camper beyond a moving trip it makes life pretty fun! 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I made a scrapbook of sentimental photos/pictures/letters, etc. I'm not the creative type so it isn't very "cutesy", but I can look through it and see kind letters written to me from past professors, or knickknacks given to me by people, or pictures with people I love... it always cheers me up on a sad day. Someone suggested keeping a "happy folder" as well, where they keep all of their "admissions good news". I'm thinking of making a page where I paste in all of the "Congratulations, you've been admitted to X" sentences.

[MarineBluePsy]

11 hours ago, sjoh197 said:

If the physical paper isn't sentimental, just the memories... you could always either amateur scan the items yourself or take them somewhere to be scanned more professionally. Then you'll have all the memories, but on a card the size of a quarter rather than a box the size of a dog.

 

10 hours ago, Need Coffee in an IV said:

I don't have a box of any sentimental value, was unhappy growing up, but my boyfriend has a box full of his old IDs, paperwork, etc. He thinks those things are small enough and could still be useful. He has scan things though, so that could be an idea! Our useless but sentimental stuff will be our framed photos, along with our rock samples that we have found during our vacations. We will have a box full of rocks

It's actually a mix of paper photos, undeveloped film, photos on cd, yearbooks, and other albums.  I pondered scanning everything, but then realized I don't care to look at any of it.  A part of me wants to pitch it all in the trash or burn it and another part of me wants to shove it back in the closet where it was.  Neither are options and who knows, maybe in 20 years I'll want all of this stuff for some reason.

10 hours ago, yayspace said:

Okay, first I was freaking out about not getting accepted and now I'm freaking out about the idea of moving from Chicago to Louisiana. How do people move across the country?!

I'm wondering this very same thing.  Totally ok to freak out, I am 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I just realized that in 4 weeks I'll officially have moved to Ithaca! I'M TERRIFIED

[hippyscientist]

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny that's so exciting!!!! Hope all the moving goes okay.  I'm stuck where I am until the beginning of August and I'm getting really itchy feet about moving. My pinterest board is all how I'm going to decorate my new place. 

[Neist]

I know many of you here are already attending a graduate program, so what I'm fixing to comment on will probably be more obvious, but I had a strange epiphany that I thought I'd like to share.

I just realized that once I'm in graduate school, I can be more selective about what sort of advice seriously consider. This sounds like a silly realization, because anyone can discount advice at any point, but somehow I never felt as if I could intellectually disagree with peers about my interests. Before, I'd end up feeling guilty and stupid in the shadow of another's discontent, but I think I'm going to set that all aside. A lot of academics think a lot of other academic's work is misguided. 

Happy thoughts, and I'm marching to the beat of my own drum going forward.

[janetjanejune]

@Neist I feel ya. Getting admitted to grad school in general is a reality check. Reminder to carry myself more maturely. Most folks don't understand my program or GA position. Instead of being downplayed, I stand my ground and educate them. I like being confident.

Anyone else doing an inventory of your closet? I have a looot of clothes.

[hippyscientist]

3 hours ago, Neist said:

I know many of you here are already attending a graduate program, so what I'm fixing to comment on will probably be more obvious, but I had a strange epiphany that I thought I'd like to share.

I just realized that once I'm in graduate school, I can be more selective about what sort of advice seriously consider. This sounds like a silly realization, because anyone can discount advice at any point, but somehow I never felt as if I could intellectually disagree with peers about my interests. Before, I'd end up feeling guilty and stupid in the shadow of another's discontent, but I think I'm going to set that all aside. A lot of academics think a lot of other academic's work is misguided. 

Happy thoughts, and I'm marching to the beat of my own drum going forward.

It was actually on a visit which drove this point home. An outside seminar speaker was presenting his research, and I was lucky enough to attend. There was a large Q&A section following his presentation, and the current PhD students and professors asked very insightful, tactful questions that basically amounted to "why the heck did you do this? it's pointless and utterly worthless". I mean I felt sorry for the guy but it was a really interesting insight into how academics think, how to critique tactfully but also how to defend your work. My goal going into my PhD will be to have confidence without arrogance, acknowledge I know very little but may be considered an expert by some and remain true to myself by checking in every once in a while.

@janetjanejune closet inventory is challenging considering it's currently spread across 3 locations!! I'm trying to pare it down into clothes I've worn in the past year, to include travel and accounting for temperature discrepancies in where I'm moving to. In some ways I'm lucky because transatlantic flights mean I can't bring much so I'm being kinda harsh on myself with regards to clothes. There's a big bagful atop my wardrobe which I realliy need to start selling but haven't got around to yet. Now I've started my research full time maybe I will be able to find a few minutes.

 

[Neist]

1 hour ago, janetjanejune said:

@Neist I feel ya. Getting admitted to grad school in general is a reality check. Reminder to carry myself more maturely. Most folks don't understand my program or GA position. Instead of being downplayed, I stand my ground and educate them. I like being confident.

Anyone else doing an inventory of your closet? I have a looot of clothes.

I comfort myself with the thought that very few historians do the work I do like I do it. So, there's few people who can intelligently comment on my work. It's both a boon and a curse.  

32 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

It was actually on a visit which drove this point home. An outside seminar speaker was presenting his research, and I was lucky enough to attend. There was a large Q&A section following his presentation, and the current PhD students and professors asked very insightful, tactful questions that basically amounted to "why the heck did you do this? it's pointless and utterly worthless". I mean I felt sorry for the guy but it was a really interesting insight into how academics think, how to critique tactfully but also how to defend your work. My goal going into my PhD will be to have confidence without arrogance, acknowledge I know very little but may be considered an expert by some and remain true to myself by checking in every once in a while.

I think the difficult part for me is going to be to able to do that without becoming a little bit arrogant. It's hard to discount someone's opinion without thinking you know better than they do.

Life is all about balance. I have some growing to do, I think!  

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, janetjanejune said:

@Neist I feel ya. Getting admitted to grad school in general is a reality check. Reminder to carry myself more maturely. Most folks don't understand my program or GA position. Instead of being downplayed, I stand my ground and educate them. I like being confident.

Anyone else doing an inventory of your closet? I have a looot of clothes.

YES. HOW DID I ACQUIRE THIS MANY CLOTHES?! And why is it whenever I purge my closet none of it seems to leave? A lot of it is really cute, too, but I just opt for tshirts usually

[haltheincandescent]

I'm with you @Neist--mostly right now on advice about going to grad school at all. There's been a lot of flutter around on the humanities boards here about how deeply terrible/soul-crushing/life-ruining grad school in the humanities is, both in terms of job prospects and as an experience more generally, and, while some of it has been really a productive discussion, now that I'm definitely in it for the long-haul, a lot of it's just really dragging me down. I'm going to put some of that on the back-burner for my first year, at least, and in the meantime pivot back to mostly listening to all my profs who have told me it was the most fun and engaging time of their lives, and that, (at least in my program) it's definitely possible to spend a few good 'life of the mind' years toward the beginning at least, and then I'll come back to everything else when I've got myself oriented a bit better to the workload and everything.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

My professors just told me that when I feel like killing myself while I'm in grad school, I can call them. I simultaneously feel loved and depressed.

[Neist]

5 minutes ago, haltheincandescent said:

I'm with you @Neist--mostly right now on advice about going to grad school at all. There's been a lot of flutter around on the humanities boards here about how deeply terrible/soul-crushing/life-ruining grad school in the humanities is, both in terms of job prospects and as an experience more generally, and, while some of it has been really a productive discussion, now that I'm definitely in it for the long-haul, a lot of it's just really dragging me down. I'm going to put some of that on the back-burner for my first year, at least, and in the meantime pivot back to mostly listening to all my profs who have told me it was the most fun and engaging time of their lives, and that, (at least in my program) it's definitely possible to spend a few good 'life of the mind' years toward the beginning at least, and then I'll come back to everything else when I've got myself oriented a bit better to the workload and everything.

The only real hesitation I have with graduate school is the potential of taking on more loans. I only have 27.5k in loans right now, and I'll be able to finish my dual masters with only a little more. I'm hoping to end graduate school with no more than 40k (a chunk of which will be from unsubsidized loan interest.. yay...). However, If I can stay under 40k, and I pay the minimum payments expected in an income dependent plan, gauged against the entry-level librarian salary of $45k a year, the required ~$150 minimum payment will cover compounding interest until I get loan forgiveness in a maximum 20-25 years (with a final income tax payment of around $6-7k).

Of course I want to pay them off faster than that, but I think I'd be comfortable with the worst case scenarios. Even if I'm only getting a 45k a year salary, that's a thousand dollars more a month than I'm getting now, so my quality of life should go up, either way. And librarian positions, given my experience, should be way easier to obtain than a faculty position in a department.

I still get nervous though. 

1 minute ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

My professors just told me that when I feel like killing myself while I'm in grad school, I can call them. I simultaneously feel loved and depressed.

I'm glad for you!  I'm not sure if everyone experiences academic camaraderie, but I definitely have. Academics tend to be either really supportive, or not. I let the former help me while ignoring the latter. 

[Cat_Robutt]

@Neist seems like you've got some good plans for the future!

Are any of you going back for your PhD after time away? I've been an adjunct for a little while now, and it seems like most of my cohort are coming straight from other programs. I'm a little worried about playing catch-up with theory and writing––is this something anyone else is experiencing? It's like being accepted is one of the best things to ever happen to me, and has also caused a thousand additional stressors I hadn't even thought about up until now.

I still can't believe I'm moving in seven weeks...

[Need Coffee in an IV]

Sigh IUPUI was super nice in their responding email! I really liked them, but I guess it wasn't meant to work out. I also have a lot of clothes, but I don't want to leave any of it! @Cat_Robutt I think everyone is nervous about catching up, I know I am. I'm coming out of undergrad but have never done research so I'm nervous that I won't be able to produce good work. Everyone says I think like a researcher, and ask insightful good questions....

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I thought I was doing so well financially... reserved a U-Haul, bought a cat tree (for the cats I don't even have yet, hahaha), took a long trip to use my telescope, etc. etc. etc....

and then today I got an email saying I forgot to pay rent.

 

Seriously, I can't believe they let people like me be adults??