Grad school, week 1

I love college. I love the smell of school, the sight of students studying in small clusters, the open air feeling of many student unions/centers, row after row of over-priced textbooks in the book store, the students proudly wearing their school logos on sweatshirts, sweatpants, tshirts and other clothing items.

So I'm very happy to be back.

All last week, the song "I Wish I Could Go Back To College" from Avenue Q popped into my mind and I wondered if I could easily go back to school. After all, I am older than many students, I haven't had to study anything for a while, and I am going to continue to work full-time. But after this week, I can do it.

Wednesday's class, European Towns and Villages, filled quickly. Like the nerd that I am, I sat front and center - ready to be filled with the knowledge and wisdom that my professor was prepared to grace me with. As other classmates trickled in, I caught on quickly that they knew each other - and I felt like an outsider. So I busied myself with a book until the professor walked in. They greeted him enthusiastically, and he did so in return - a good omen. Perhaps this class will be wonderful and the professor will be wonderful. He didn't keep us long - just enough time to tell us what assignments we must do. Of the 4 books we're reading, we must critique 3 of them. Fabulous - I won't do it on the dull-looking Renaissance Florence book. And then we have a 12-15 page paper due in December, and we won't meet as a class for most of November so that we can have time to work on our paper. I've decided that my paper will be on children in London during the time of Charles Dickens. I can merge both my knowledge of England (and thus the research), plus be able to add specific influences in Dickens' work - especially Great Expectations, which I teach.

Thursday was class number two - Research and Methods (aka - the history of history). This professor kept us the entire time, and he poured the work on us - heavy weekly readings and 6 2-page critical thinking essays - one for the next 6 weeks. Then we don't have class for 8 weeks while we work on a 20 page paper. Yep, 20 pages. We are to find a local archive and dig around, find stuff, come up with a paper idea and write it. I think I'm going to head to the San Jacinto History Museum/archives and dig there. I hope to find fantastic primary source documents on various early settlements of Texas - either Spanish or American (when they decided that they didn't want Mexico to have it anymore). I'm excited because who knows what I'll find.

I did feel overwhelmed Thursday, especially when I saw how much work this one class required. But the feeling of excitement washed over me today when I went to the campus bookstore to buy my last book (the others were ordered on amazon.com, but I ordered the wrong edition of one and needed to get it quickly). I decided to show a bit of pride and bought a college t-shirt, although my loyalty towards LSU made me feel a bit guilty. Both schools are fantastic, and LSU will always be the better one, but this is my school now, and this is the school from which I'm earning my master's degree. Then, when I get my PhD, I'll have yet a third college to root for.

I love college. I can't wait to go to the library tomorrow and study and read!