Thanks to everyone who sent comments on my last post. The weight/brain stuff stuff really seems to resonate with people, so I'll say it a million times if it helps: my brain works better after gaining weight. I never would've believed it without experiencing it for myself, and it's a hard thing to articulate, but hugely noticeable and life-changing. So, yeah. Don't trust a hungry brain.
Anyways, gosh. YOU GUYS. Grad school is intense. It's not even so much that the work is hard, since I'm a fast reader and can churn out papers pretty easily—it's just the sheer volume of it. Prioritizing gets tricky when there is so much to do. BUT, it's all good. My classes are interesting and my professors are smarty-pants, and all my classrooms have comfy chairs. So, I'm not really sure what more a girl could ask for.
Plus, my new advisor has turned out to be a total winner and I'm super excited about the research we're doing. The only complication is that his wife is very pregnant (she was due, like, last Tuesday) so he is a tad distracted. Yet somehow he still answers e-mails like a machine and gives tons of guidance and feedback and all that good stuff that mentors are supposed to do. He reminds me a lot of my thesis advisor from last year, who was a BOSS. I suppose I must have a thing for the academic type.
The biggest Issue is that my lifestyle has changed drastically in the last two weeks. I'm almost never home anymore—depending on the day, I might leave at 8 or 9 in the morning and not get back until 8 or 9 at night. So, that's exhausting. Oddly I'm handling all the changes relatively well, and am getting better at packing enough food for the day and being flexible about mealtimes. Eventually, I think I may need to re-evaluate the five-class/two-job thing because I really am completely swamped. But for now I'm sticking with it because A) I want to graduate on time and B) I need the money.
That's the gist of things—school, work, collapse. I've probably spent 50% of the past week at my computer, so I'm going to peace for now. Have a great weekend!
Life is always so much drastically busier when school starts, busier than people that work full time I think. 16 credits, an internship, and working plus extra curriculars is tough for me, but all the things to do kind of helps me focus on keeping up and distracting myself from ed thoughts. "Move move, go go go, study study, oh I have to eat in order to keep going, let's eat and move on" is kind of how I go about it, fuel to keep up with everything. I hope you're able to keep up with everything!
ReplyDeleteagreed! I totally crashed and burned my sophomore year of college because I was SO busy trying to do a million things and take a million credits and not eating. So, that didn't end well. But I think now that I'm in a better place, staying busy keeps me distracted enough to avoid ruminating and obsessing about food. thanks, hope you are doing well too!
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