The "how I wasted my time today" blog theme is back, although in a slightly different format. As I settle in to begin studying for exams, I'm finding myself returning to utterly worthless musings (although of an entirely different sort) and here you will be able to find ridiculous ways to waste your time thinking about things that don't matter and no one cares about. It's good to be back...
This afternoon, after having spent an hour reading in the dungeon-like grad student computer lab at Emory (reading on the internet is still "reading"), I found myself in desperate need of coffee.As I glanced into the full classrooms while walking though the hallway and zipped up my fleece to exit into the chilly, gray day that Hurricane Irene (or Lee...who can keep track these days?) has so graciously brought us, I thought to myself, "Mmmmm...I love this time of year...."
This thought, brought in the first week of September, made me realize something important about grad students: we are fucked up. We're so fucked up that we even have our seasons backwards.
Most people (well, most normal people) spend all winter waiting for the first warm days of Spring - a time that represents renewal as animals re-emerge from their hibernation, flowers begin to bloom and one can walk outside without 14 layers of clothing. But, oh no...not we academics. We spend all summer awaiting those first cold days of Fall - a time that represents a return to order as students re-submerge into their dulled intellectual hibernation, the leaves turn brown and start to die, and one finally has an excuse to spend all day in their pajamas on the couch under a blanket reading an article from the 1980s about the recitation practices of Muslims in a small Indonesian village community (because, you know, that is where our attention should be focused). We seek not the sound of birds chirping aloft in the trees, but the sounds of odd inflection in our own solitary voices projecting from the front of a classroom. We desire not shorts and sundresses, but the oversized sweater that we bought for $2 at a thrift store our freshman year of college because, even though we bought it then to be "cool," it has now become our "lucky" sweater - our "writing" sweater (you know, the one that we must wear for days on end without washing because we're constantly "writing" and detergent will strip the sweater of its magical ability to inspire our creativity. See, that's just logic...the true marker of a grad student). Our bellies yearn not for a craft beer on a pretty patio with friends, but to be warmed by the bite of cheap whiskey while watching Hulu alone in the dark. Our hearts rejoice at a 6 p.m. sunsets because that just means we can legitimately begin the process of procrastinating through sleep at an earlier hour and Steve Inskeep's voice is so much more powerful when it is still dark outside (please note: it is mostly grad students and academics who will understand/appreciate that last comment).
Yes, Spring has little meaning for the dedicated graduate student who has neither the time, money, nor inclination to travel to an exotic destination for Spring Break and drink her cares away. No, for it is Fall, the time when the world begins to withdraw and her body is regulated by constant intervals of coffee (but not iced coffee...it's coffee, dammit! It's supposed to be hot!) and alcohol, rather than sunshine, that she is most comfortable.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go take a 20 minute shower to warm up my bathroom enough to change out of out my pajamas because I also can't afford to heat my apartment, but I don't have to pay for water...
God, I love this time of year.
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This afternoon, after having spent an hour reading in the dungeon-like grad student computer lab at Emory (reading on the internet is still "reading"), I found myself in desperate need of coffee.As I glanced into the full classrooms while walking though the hallway and zipped up my fleece to exit into the chilly, gray day that Hurricane Irene (or Lee...who can keep track these days?) has so graciously brought us, I thought to myself, "Mmmmm...I love this time of year...."
This thought, brought in the first week of September, made me realize something important about grad students: we are fucked up. We're so fucked up that we even have our seasons backwards.
Most people (well, most normal people) spend all winter waiting for the first warm days of Spring - a time that represents renewal as animals re-emerge from their hibernation, flowers begin to bloom and one can walk outside without 14 layers of clothing. But, oh no...not we academics. We spend all summer awaiting those first cold days of Fall - a time that represents a return to order as students re-submerge into their dulled intellectual hibernation, the leaves turn brown and start to die, and one finally has an excuse to spend all day in their pajamas on the couch under a blanket reading an article from the 1980s about the recitation practices of Muslims in a small Indonesian village community (because, you know, that is where our attention should be focused). We seek not the sound of birds chirping aloft in the trees, but the sounds of odd inflection in our own solitary voices projecting from the front of a classroom. We desire not shorts and sundresses, but the oversized sweater that we bought for $2 at a thrift store our freshman year of college because, even though we bought it then to be "cool," it has now become our "lucky" sweater - our "writing" sweater (you know, the one that we must wear for days on end without washing because we're constantly "writing" and detergent will strip the sweater of its magical ability to inspire our creativity. See, that's just logic...the true marker of a grad student). Our bellies yearn not for a craft beer on a pretty patio with friends, but to be warmed by the bite of cheap whiskey while watching Hulu alone in the dark. Our hearts rejoice at a 6 p.m. sunsets because that just means we can legitimately begin the process of procrastinating through sleep at an earlier hour and Steve Inskeep's voice is so much more powerful when it is still dark outside (please note: it is mostly grad students and academics who will understand/appreciate that last comment).
Yes, Spring has little meaning for the dedicated graduate student who has neither the time, money, nor inclination to travel to an exotic destination for Spring Break and drink her cares away. No, for it is Fall, the time when the world begins to withdraw and her body is regulated by constant intervals of coffee (but not iced coffee...it's coffee, dammit! It's supposed to be hot!) and alcohol, rather than sunshine, that she is most comfortable.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go take a 20 minute shower to warm up my bathroom enough to change out of out my pajamas because I also can't afford to heat my apartment, but I don't have to pay for water...
God, I love this time of year.
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