Remember that one time when I had a blog that I occasionally updated? I think I’ll do that again. I thought about doing so on a new blog name (I even reserved one), but I’ve moved so many times this summer, I don’t want to do so again, even electronically. Sorry to those for the pause–don’t worry, I didn’t die. I don’t have much excuse other than that I was busy living, which is really probably the best excuse I could have.
Yesterday was the first day of classes for the semester, and I’m so excited for this semester that I can hardly believe it myself. The summer was absolutely wonderful–I met a lot of awesome people, I had a great job, I had some firsts (granola making, apartment finding, et cetera), I learned a little of two languages that round out my linguistic experience a little more (Indonesian and ASL), and I generally enjoyed myself, having found some places/groups/et cetera where I fit well. I’ll miss lots of things–hanging out in Ecohouse, the walk home (very cool houses and friendly neighbors), and the general flexibility that comes with summer. But I know that progress is inevitable, and I really do want to move on with my life. A little taste of research has made me hungry for grad school (GRE got taken care of this summer too!) and this last school year is going to be used preparing for that, but also taking advantage of this place and working with these people as much as possible while I’m here.
I’ve only been to one MW class so far (normally I’d have 3, but the professor of 2/3 of those is away for a conference this week so those two will start next week), but I have every reason to believe that all the courses will be great. I know all the professors (and they know me), and they’re all topics I’m interested in. 4 linguistics courses and one economics course. Once they get going a little more, I’ll probably report on them. I’ll also be working on a senior honors thesis in linguistics. I hadn’t planned on it, but I chatted about it with a professor, and we worked out a topic that I’m very excited about. Look out for a report on that soon too.
For now, I’ll leave a list of some (but not all) goals for the coming year.
- Complete all assignments. That sounds pretty obvious, but can become tough when my hesitance to turn in less-than-perfect meets not enough time to make it perfect
- Work on learning Indonesian. I may or may not be taking language courses this semester, but I’ll go crazy if I’m not actively working on one.
- Read for fun. Right now I’m working my way through every Sherlock Holmes story ever (well, that’s a lie. I’m just working through the canon stories).
- Apply to grad school. I don’t that needs any explanation. But I guess I’m still figuring out what would make a grad school right for me, so there’s that to do too.