Back to the Future!

Tonight, while chatting with my Dad, I made the comment that 177 days (and 40 minutes) remain until graduation.  He responded, "Yes, but 1,173 days already completed...3 years and 3 months".  Am I my father's daughter or what?  So, we wanted to figure out the actual number (he's a retired accountant) but I couldn't remember the actual first day's date.  So, I sifted through old emails and found this one.  I used to send updates to my friends back home before I got into the blogging..back when I used to have an inbox of 0 unread or needing to respond to messages.  It's funny to read these words as a first week doc student and think of my first impressions of the program.  So much has changed yet some thing don't change.  Enjoy this email blast from the past!

*  Please excuse the mass email...it was easier to send it this way than to email everyone individually...

Hi All,

I hope that everyone is doing well and wrapping up their summers with a bang! 

This past week was my first week of my assistantship at University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG).  The small office in which I work feels a lot like the LIU office I worked in...it is small with no windows.  There are 6 computers we share with each other.  So far, not all of us have been there at the same time so I've been able to use the same computer each day.  I've already had to do multiple projects and tasks for my 2 faculty I am a grad assistant for this semester.  

There are girls from all over the place in the program....Japan, Romania, North Carolina, etc.  There is only one other full time doctoral student in the program who is focusing on Special Ed.  She is a local married Mom of 2 and is expecting her 3rd baby in February.  Sheresa and I have bonded this past week since we have all of our classes together and are new.  She has an advantage in that she got her Master's here and has already taught a few classes at the college.  I'm told that there are a couple of part time doctoral students and now only one other Deaf Ed. student besides me.

There are 5 full time Master's girls as well.  We'll be working with them since this is a low number for both programs of students coming in..so we're sharing some of our faculty we work for (due to our assistantships) with them.  They're all local or within an hour's drive from campus.  The up side to the low numbers is that our stipends will be slightly higher than what we were told for this year.  The girl I share a professor with is really nice and pretty.  She just relocated from Greensboro (where school is) to High Point (where I now live).  She is working on her Master's in Special Ed.  Tiffany is the epitome of what I picture a Southern Belle to be and it's fun hearing her NC accent.  The professor we share is Dr. H.  It is his first year teaching here but he came to UNCG from teaching at Gallaudet University.  Yes, he is Deaf and I MUST use my horrible sign language skills to communicate w/ him.  I hope to learn a lot from him!  Tiffany knows no sign language and I suspect my advisor assigned us together so that I would have no choice but to use sign.  For those of you who sign, you should skype me so we can practice!    Anyhow, Tiffany and I both work 10 hours a week for Dr. H and then I work 10 hours a week for my advisor as well.  It'll be interesting to see how that arrangement works with having to make sure that each person only gets 10 hours.

Classes begin this coming Monday.  Tentatively, my work schedule will be

Mondays:  1-3pm, class from 4 to 7pm

Tuesdays:  10 - 3pm, classes from 4 to 7pm

Thursdays:  work 8:30 - 4:30pm.  

I left Fridays and Monday mornings open to try to complete my own work and classwork if I can't get it all done over the weekends because I'm told that come Monday, my time is no longer my own and life as I know it will change.  I got a sneak peek of what the courseload looks like for my Monday night class and yes, it's going to be a killer.  If that is all the work that is due for one class, I'm scared to think of what the work for the other 2 classes will look like on top of the research I have to be involved with (through the 2 faculty I work for) and carry out my own research....but there is nothing I can do about it right now.  So, I'll continue listening to Delilah on the radio with Dusty curled up in a ball asleep at my feet.  

Thanks for all the encouraging words and kind thoughts this past week as I started out on this new path last week.  The drive down on Saturday was really rough...I really wanted to just hop on 83 S instead of continuing down 81 S.  I think I still need prayers and good vibes sent my way so please keep them a comin'!  

Love, Meg