Of Committee Meetings, Weather Warnings and Thesis Statments
The day started with an 'Oh SHIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!' I saw 7:32 on the clock, I needed to be on the other side of town at 8am and did I mention I was supposed to drop Game Teen at school, too? Thankfully, Ed took the child to school.
Yes, that committee I was on as a student representative? We've reconvened and now I'm the graduate representative. I got there fifteen minutes late and they'd already reviewed half of the candidates on our new list. About 2 hours work completed in twenty minutes, it's what happens when you are working with prepared and motivated committee members.
The end result? We've got another day of interviews set up for Tampa next week.
So, the meeting is over (in Lakeland) and you have a 5pm class (in Tampa), what do you do? If you're me, you drive over to the other campus and settle in for a day of studying.
Apparently, while I was busy reading a chapter in the textbook that touched on SIX previous psychology classes, doom and gloom was descending on the gulf coast of Florida. There were tornado warnings, and I was clueless of this fact, since I usually ignore weather forecasts. Something about not being able to change it makes me apathetic to it.
This is what it looked like when I got home.
After several hours of studying, reading, checking out a doctoral program prospect and doing some prep work for the massive research paper for tonight's class, I decided I wanted some coffee. Conveniently, there's a Starbucks in the entrance of the library. (Beggars can't be choosers, so I won't complain). While waiting for the elevator, I ran into a classmate and we chatted for a few moments. She also travels a distance to class and we commented about how we prefer getting there early and reviewing materials. It was 4pm, and our class would have a session with a researcher at the library at 5:15.
I grab my coffee and I'm back upstairs five minutes later and M says "You're not going to believe this, but class has been canceled."
It seems that whenever I carve out one of these long on-campus study days, the odds are greater that exactly this will happen. We chat about perhaps we'll just stay on campus and get a jump on the work. We discuss the fact that we've got our worksheets ready and preliminary topics for these papers.
Other classmates trickle in, others who travel 45 minutes or more to campus. All take the news in stride, contemplating study time and deciding to take advantage of the second email that says the professor is on campus and will meet up with anyone here to go over those worksheets. One of my fellow group members shows up and we decide that if the other two arrive, we'll stick around and bang out an outline for that project.
So, seven of us meet with the professor. We get handouts for next week, so it was worth it to make the drive. Then, one by one, we talk about what we came up with for our papers. Originally, I wanted to write about anxiety and Asperger's in the classroom, but I couldn't narrow it down enough for my satisfaction.
What I did come up with ended up being a very precise look at something that will be a building block for the dissertation ahead. Even better, when I posed the question on the worksheet, I posted it to Facebook-and GameTeen's school Director verified several studies that will support what I question.
I could have been mad about the late cancellation. Instead, I embraced it for the gift it turned out to be. It resulted in some solid on-campus studying and an approval of my topic a week earlier than most of the class. I'll take it.
Yes, that committee I was on as a student representative? We've reconvened and now I'm the graduate representative. I got there fifteen minutes late and they'd already reviewed half of the candidates on our new list. About 2 hours work completed in twenty minutes, it's what happens when you are working with prepared and motivated committee members.
The end result? We've got another day of interviews set up for Tampa next week.
So, the meeting is over (in Lakeland) and you have a 5pm class (in Tampa), what do you do? If you're me, you drive over to the other campus and settle in for a day of studying.
Apparently, while I was busy reading a chapter in the textbook that touched on SIX previous psychology classes, doom and gloom was descending on the gulf coast of Florida. There were tornado warnings, and I was clueless of this fact, since I usually ignore weather forecasts. Something about not being able to change it makes me apathetic to it.
This is what it looked like when I got home.After several hours of studying, reading, checking out a doctoral program prospect and doing some prep work for the massive research paper for tonight's class, I decided I wanted some coffee. Conveniently, there's a Starbucks in the entrance of the library. (Beggars can't be choosers, so I won't complain). While waiting for the elevator, I ran into a classmate and we chatted for a few moments. She also travels a distance to class and we commented about how we prefer getting there early and reviewing materials. It was 4pm, and our class would have a session with a researcher at the library at 5:15.
I grab my coffee and I'm back upstairs five minutes later and M says "You're not going to believe this, but class has been canceled."
It seems that whenever I carve out one of these long on-campus study days, the odds are greater that exactly this will happen. We chat about perhaps we'll just stay on campus and get a jump on the work. We discuss the fact that we've got our worksheets ready and preliminary topics for these papers.
Other classmates trickle in, others who travel 45 minutes or more to campus. All take the news in stride, contemplating study time and deciding to take advantage of the second email that says the professor is on campus and will meet up with anyone here to go over those worksheets. One of my fellow group members shows up and we decide that if the other two arrive, we'll stick around and bang out an outline for that project.
So, seven of us meet with the professor. We get handouts for next week, so it was worth it to make the drive. Then, one by one, we talk about what we came up with for our papers. Originally, I wanted to write about anxiety and Asperger's in the classroom, but I couldn't narrow it down enough for my satisfaction.
What I did come up with ended up being a very precise look at something that will be a building block for the dissertation ahead. Even better, when I posed the question on the worksheet, I posted it to Facebook-and GameTeen's school Director verified several studies that will support what I question.
I could have been mad about the late cancellation. Instead, I embraced it for the gift it turned out to be. It resulted in some solid on-campus studying and an approval of my topic a week earlier than most of the class. I'll take it.
Comments