Relief

I got an email from my department today announcing that we would not be required to put in hours as research assistants and such for our summer stipend. Although I would in general be happy to be given money, this comes as a nice surprise for four reasons: 1) Last summer I worked in a classroom every day and spent the rest of my time making up syllabi, worksheets, exercises, and such. It was a long, stressful summer that ended with my first set of graduate exams. Needless to say, I am happy not to face another one like it this year. 2) The amount of work and stress of being a research assistant has been very much luck-of-the-draw in past years, so you never know going into things if you’ll be showing up to help move furniture all summer long, or if you’ll be allowed to take time for your own work. 3) I want to get started on dissertation thoughts and the like, and it will be really helpful to have big swatches of time to do that in. I’m also hoping to tackle French, so I might actually be able to fit it in this summer. 4) Sydney and I intend to be on the road for part of the summer (mostly visiting family, which is always a loooong drive), so we can now do this when we and they would like, rather than have to work around a school schedule.

Had to share the news. I’ll try not to sit back and think of the freedom of my summer – time to get back to work!

Erin