Grad School

Well, I've finished my first week of grad school!  I am lost.  Boy did I forget a lot in the past (nearly) 6 years!  I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that I'm going to have to work WAYYYY harder than I ever expected.  Justin doesn't know it yet, but I'm planning to spend as much time as possible in the library at CNU this weekend.  I have a lot of reviewing to do.  I studied very hard in undergrad and I'm prepared to do it all over again.  I guess putting things in long term memory only lasts for so long...

I'll be at school for long hours twice a week - six hours of TA work (for this semester I'm just in a lab to offer help when needed...and I'm hoping to get some studying done then too), followed by four hours of classes.  Ten hour days.  Yikes!  But this is a blessing and what I truly wanted because I didn't want to drive over to Norfolk (about 45 minutes to an hour of travel time door to door each way) anymore than I had too.  Extra driving time would mean extra time away from my sweet babies.  So, twice a week I will leave the house at 8am and return home around 8pm.  I'm not really excited about that part, but we are incredibly thankful that I was able to get a TA position.  My tuition is paid and I get paid to work.  There's no way in hell I could do this and make cakes at the same time.

I am determined to do this.  And to do this as quickly as I can.  And then I want to go back to spending as much time as possible at home with the kids.  I mean, I guess I'll try to get a part-time job teaching as an adjunct instructor somewhere close to home...but mostly I just need to do this before anymore time goes by.  So that when the kids are in school, I can work part-time.  Catch where I'm going with this...I'm not all that eager to go back to work full-time, ever.  Some people like to say they just don't "do school" very well.  I like to tell Justin I just don't "do work" very well.  I like school.  I want to get my PhD someday, just to have it.  And I wouldn't mind having a PhD to then just turn around and sit at home and bake cookies, color, and play with my kids. 

Enough wasted time.  Time to study!  I've already learned that waking up extra early to study doesn't work.  The kids sense that I'm awake and think me waking up two hours early is just an invitation for them to wake up two hours early.