¿Ya empezó? ¿It’s already started? was Luz Belia’s comment earlier this weekend. She was referring to both the semester and my stressing out. Although classes officially start tomorrow, Monday the 14th, I was already stressing this week. So, yes, Luz Belia, I’ve already started. The primary cause is related to a list of questions for my qualifying exam for BGSU next year. The good news is that is a exam that we can work on ahead of time and I have until August to work on it. The bad news is that it is 9 papers to write.
One of their recommendations was to take classes related to the questions on the exam. So, this past week (in addition to the last week of first semester) I have been trying to set up my courses for this semester. However, the challenge was that there is a wide variety of material on the exams, and as a result, one question often only related to one class. Furthermore, many classes were only offered last semester and/or conflict with other classes. I also have consulted many professors, but I found that the more professors I consulted the more complicated it became.
In addition to the challenge of stress of trying to make the ideal semester with classes, is the stress of the work it will involve, in addition to that of my classes. All of you that know me can affirm that I am not the best manager or balancer of work/fun in that I often work more than I need to and then get stressed out. So, in order to help curb this, I have already started on my exam for Bowling Green. However, I still managed to stress out for two reasons: 1) I mapped out the semester and having approximately only two weeks per question/paper (yikes!), and 2) I had a hard time finding reference material (i.e. books, articles) to enable me to answer one the questions. The lack of resources is a common problem here that I knew about it, but had forgotten how frustrating and limited it is. It’s not just a question of not having the book on hand, it’s not being able to order them. And in regard to articles, the academic journals here at the university are cataloged by articles, and I haven’t find a great internet site for getting articles in Spanish on the web, although thankfully I do have BGSU to help out with that, although Spanish articles are still hard to find.
So, yes, school and its stress have resumed. The good news is that I made a lot of head way on Friday, both in regards to classes and finding key background information on one of the questions. I was also reminded that I need to examine my goals for next semester. I know I will work hard, but I also don’t want to miss out on the great opportunities of being here. So, that’s what I will try to do. And regarding the work of the semester…I know there will be a lot to do, but after all, I am a grad student.
