Grad school is a series of emotions as much as it is an educational experience. First one feels tremendous frustration as one tries to complete work (problem sets, time-juggling experiments, etc) that one feels are well beyond one’s capabilities, while all the surrounding people give off the expectations and assumption that one should EASILY be able to accomplish it, when in truth it’s not easy at all. Then, one completes the task at hand and feels an exceptional amount of pride and satisfaction and relief. Then, almost immediately, another nearly insurmountable task presents itself. Repeat… for 5-6 years.
Also, everything I now write or type, I have to stop myself from writing it in LaTeX code. E-mails, blog entries, post-its to myself. Yeah… everything should be in TeX. (For those not in the know, TeX is a baby-programming language designed to type math and display it like it should look, as opposed to hand-writing it or using some sort of inferior way to type math.)
My latest emotional roller coaster involves completing a difficult analysis assignment that I didn’t want to do on Friday. Then immediately after turning in that assignment and releasing my sigh of relief, I opened my inbox and found a REALLY difficult algebra assignment that I barely have time to do… and it’s due Monday. And today I turned in this algebra assignment… only to start studying for a topology exam I have this Thursday. Blah blah neverending cycle blah blah.
It’s okay. Next week is spring break. Too bad I have assignments in all 3 classes due the week we get back, as well as an algebra exam that week.
On the plus side, I will be making my first trip ever to Las Vegas during spring break! I’ll be spending 3 days there and 1.5 days at the Grand Canyon. It will be lots of fun, but little relaxation. When we aren’t out being super touristy, we’ll be inside working on those assignments that are due at the end of spring break. In spite of the stress and sadness that comes from working while on vacation, I intend to have a great time. We’ve got a lot of fun events planned, and I’ve been wanting to go for a while. I’ve been wanting to go on a fun trip ANYWHERE for a while. It will be my first going-away-vacation-trip-extravaganza in a long time. I had two brief trips last summer, and other than that, I’ve only been on one other major trip since junior high, and that one turned out horribly. I have high hopes for this one, and I doubt it will disappoint. Great location, great plans, great company. How could it go wrong? 🙂 All things considered, I’m majorly excited!
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