Student SPHere 2008-09

I've gotten the what's-so-different-about-grad-school? question from my bachelor's degree friends lately, and it took me about a week of answering, "Oh, not much," before I realized I was wrong. Very wrong. Not necessarily in a good way or a bad way, but it's definitely different from being an undergrad a year and a half ago.

What's so different? Well...

YOU READ. A LOT. It's not that college didn't involve reading, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that it was a) not as important, b) not as interesting/relevant and c) the first thing to go. Maybe it's the beginning-of-school, good-student-kick thing, but so far I've read (just about...) everything on my syllabi--because I have to and I want to! Well, more or less...

THE RATIO DOESN'T LIE. Remember that "policy" that one credit hour is supposed to equal three hours of work a week (i.e., nine hours per week for your average three-credit class)? And remember how it never took that long? Well, it does now. And if one week lacks a little, I can be sure those banked hours will come back to get me later in the semester.

GROUP WORK DOESN'T SUCK. It's not that I'm not a people person; in fact, it's very much the opposite. But no amount of fake smiling could disguise the doom I felt every time I flipped through a syllabus on the first day of a college course to see that that the final project that's 75 percent of my grade would be done in an assigned group. Oh. No. But now that I'm constantly surrounded with awesome people with awesome experiences who really want to be here to learn and share and chat, I can't wait for group work (and I'm hoping my lab group will help me not fail epi).

Other grad-school surprises to date (definitely more to come):

- I have a real live, old-school locker.

- The Washington Bridge's top level is mostly closed because of safety concerns = NO BIKING. (So you will see me, all year, dorkily walking the bike I got for high school graduation across the bridge. Wearing the school-bus yellow helmet that I may or may not have gotten at the same time.)

- I get business cards!

- The health insurance for Academic Health Center students is sweet! (I guess ask me after I have to use it, but it looks good on paper.)

- I am WAY lucky to have a research assistantship. Ever since I got my tiny bill for the fall, I've been reminding myself of that every morning when my alarm goes off extra early so I can scan the major U.S. newspapers for health reporting or--my favorite--watch the network morning shows on fast-forward, looking for pill bottles, syringes or white coats that might signal something good. More on the assistantship later. For right now, I'm just glad I have one.

***NOTE: From the perspective of others in my life, such as The Boyfriend, I'm sure this list looks a lot different. His likely observations? "You whine a lot, do too much homework, get too excited about your homework, are turning into a big nerd (in a good way?) and your spazzy moods jump from high to low to way too high so fast that I have no idea what's going on."

Welcome to grad school. :)