Resolved!

This is so true on so many levels that it hurts. I am very grateful that this semester I am working for two faculty members and they are all relevant to what I like/want to work on. I am very happy to say that this comic has only really happened to me once in all of my years of academia.

Funding

I Laugh

I laugh because crying hurts....

The Gods are Smiling

I won't go into my unresolved issues with faculty members, or even how I shoved my foot in my mouth with her and almost lost my funding. I am just too happy right now.

First, the gods have completed the freeway interchange that is right on campus and they personally put an exit and entrance ramp in the perfect spot for me to get around. If there was little traffic on the freeway, it would only take me 10 minutes to get to campus.

Second, in my undergraduate years my friends and I frequented the Dairy Queen on campus. Sadly it was replaced by a George Webbs. Now, while I don't mind a Webbs, it just isn't the same. But yesterday, the gods were smiling and Webbs is now a Qdoba. For those of you who don't know me, or at least not that well, I could eat Qdoba at least four to five days a week. Mmmmm...............Qdoba.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I have started classes for this semester. In my research course we had a gentleman from the county historical society come and talk to us about what type of collections they have. When I asked him about my particular school that I want to research, he informed me that a woman stopped by over the summer and dropped a whole series of records off for them. To put the icing on the cake, they also have a very active alumni group in the area that was holding the collection of pieces. Jackpot!!!!! I felt bad for the poor kids in the class who got more vague responses than I.

I did find it funny when he talked about a the Milwaukee Chicks who were a member of the AAGPBL. I never knew that Milwaukee had a team in this fabled league, if only for a year, and would love to look more into women's access to sports in the city of Milwaukee pre-Title IX. I guess that will have to wait until after I am done with my first project.

Protecting Human Subject Research Participants

Protecting Human Subject Research Participants That's right, I am certified! Aren't you as excited as I am. Wait, I only deal with dead people. What am I doing again?

Knowledge is Relative

I have found it odd the reaction I get when I tell people what I do. When I was a high school teacher, I received looks of sympathy from people or comments about my fortitude. Now when I tell them that I am a doctoral student or I teach college, it is a different response altogether. For the former, I get questions about how hard medical school is or what my dissertation is about/degree is in. The first one just makes me giggle, the second one I never want to answer because I know they don't care, they are just being polite. As for the response about me teaching college, it is funny. People make comments about how smart I must be, or how young I am to be teaching at the college level.

The perceptions of what a high school teacher and what a college instructor look like and how smart they are astound me. I have the same degrees that I did when I was a high school teacher, just one more year of college difference. I am only one year older than I was when a high school teacher.

Responses about how smart I am are so funny, because anyone who has gone on past their bachelor's degree knows how graduate school beats the smart out of you. Now I have had the pleasure of being in programs that are very nurturing and collegial, rather than cut-throat. I have had the privilege of working with faculty one on one, and even being allowed to call them by their first names! The process of graduate school is to narrow your focus, and expose you to more and more information about this area of specialty. You are constantly quetioning your sanity and discussing everything to the nth degree. On top of it, your final piece of work that is the culmination of your years of study has to be defended in front of a panel of people. What other profession requires this? A medcial doctor gets a license after passing a test; if you get your law degree in the state of Wisconsin and choose to practice here, you don't even have to take the bar! Me, I have to take qualifying exams, and orally defend them, then write a long research book/paper and orally defend that as well. Now, mind you I have already done this process once for my master's degree. Does this seem smart to you? I think this proves that I am nowhere near smart.