It's been awhile since I've thrown up a post that is more or less just a compilation of random thoughts and since that was the calling card of this blog for the longest time, I figured it might be nice to throw another one up.
Like I said in my last post, I can prone to grazing through my Facebook timeline and reveling in nostalgia. An obvious result of doing this is noticing how much I've changed over the years. Yeah, I know that I'm more or less the same ska fanatic, Peter Pan Syndrome havin' mawfucka I've always been, but everyone changes. While doing this recently, which inspired my previous post, I noticed that I've grown as a person in the last year or so and have done so positively, in my opinion. It may seem narcissistic to say this, but it's comforting in my mind to know that I'm always improving myself, no matter how minute and inconsequential-in-the-long-run those changes may be. Feels good man.
Currently, I am starting to get right into the heavy part of my first semester of grad school (re: the second two thirds of it). It's getting real busy, but the good kind of busy. My brain is functioning critically really well again. I seem to have a lot to say about all the things that we're studying and I really like that. The other huge part of being in a Master's program in TAing for classes, which is new and really exciting for me. While working at KW|AG this summer, I had a lot of fun teaching kids and getting to joke around with them but also instructing them in the basics of looking at, appreciating and making art, but teaching young adults in university is whole other can of worms. I think I'm doing pretty well so far and have managed to get through to a fair amount of the kids. If anything, I take immense pride in noticing that now the kids crack a smile when the see a Duchamp piece because the understand it now. I also love seeing the horrified expressions when my classes see a Chris Burden piece for the first time. Trust me kids, it only gets weirder from here on out.
On that note, what would the kids think if they knew that I spend most of my time in my office bobbing my head and doing the cooking dance to RiFF RaFF?
People love to make fun of RaFF because of how obviously silly he is, but seriously look how different he is from everyone in the game right now. Rap game Julio Franco.
Baseball's regular season is almost over. This makes me sad. This Jays season was a giant fucking disaster. Everyone had high hopes for us after "The Trade", and the Jays just completely dropped the ball this year. Being a fan who has suffered through 20 straight playoff-less seasons, I was extremely to see how the team would do after this obvious and dramatic upgrade, but all it did was make the letdown worse. Get out and get gone Josh Johnson. It's even worse now as we're finishing the season without any of best players in the lineup and are more or less fielding our AAA team. However, silver linings can be found in the excellent campaigns that Colby Rasmus (my favourite Jay), Edwin Encarnacion, the Joses and Mark Buehrle had. Also, Munenori Kawasaki established himself as the most endearing and fun player in MLB, so there's that too.
Cool, later.
Showing posts with label grad school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grad school. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
My (Second) (Hopefully) First Semester
Hello, my name is Timothy Chandler and I am a wreck of anxiety because of grad school applications.
When I finished my fourth year of university it became apparent that many of my friends were much more serious about school than others. Some were happy about finishing and tried their best to get adult jobs that would allow them to live on their own. Others got right on applying Master's programs and grad school right away and made it their top priority in their life. At the time the thought of applying for more schooling seemed ludicrous to me, as I thought that my Bachelor of Arts program was plenty for me to handle. I also assumed that my grades would be nowhere near good enough to get me into any post-graduate program.
However, once I started to progress through the fifth and final year of my undergrad and the idea of me finishing and leaving school became very real, I suddenly didn't want to leave. As such, applying to a Master's program was all of a sudden a great idea because I would never have to leave Guelph. I found that I took a lot more interest in my program the further I got into it, so I was the most interested in staying right at the end. By that point it became more a question of "Is there a way for me to keep doing this?" as opposed to "Do I want to keep doing this?"
After I graduated both of my parents (bless their hearts) constantly asked me if I was considering school. I still stuck to the idea that I wouldn't be able to get into any programs. As per usual, Bill and Colleen saw something in me that I didn't and kept the thought in the back of my mind.
As I said in a previous blog, I've been volunteering at a local art gallery for the last few months. Once KWAG posted their summer positions, I noticed that all of them required the applicant to be returning to school in the fall. This made me realize that with only a BA in Art History, I would not be able to procure any type of good employment in my field and also made me think "What the fuck else am I going to do?!" as I'd been working a terrible job in the mean time. I immediately contacted my favourite prof from Guelph (the fabulous Sally Hickson) to inquire about master's programs and, surprise surprise, received positive feedback from her about applying.
So this is all well and good; I feel good about myself for applying and trying to do something to challenge myself, but it is a little nerve-racking. It's mostly that it is such a large step in my life and though everyone I've spoken to about pursuing it has been behind me 100%, I am just over the cut-off and the fear of not getting accepted is doing quite a number on me. I try to find every reason to not work on my application (SURE IS HANDY THAT I DIDN'T DELETE THIS BLOG) and get a bit of a pit in my stomach every time I do things related to it.
But that pit means I'm doing the right thing, doesn't it? It feels the same as when you're nervous about going on a date or nervous before a show. You know that you need to do it, but also know that you need to apply yourself and try hard and put in effort, which can be scary. I find that those type of pits always lead to the best results though, so I guess I'll put my head down, tell the anxiousness festering in my guts to fuck off and try to be the best me I can be.
When I finished my fourth year of university it became apparent that many of my friends were much more serious about school than others. Some were happy about finishing and tried their best to get adult jobs that would allow them to live on their own. Others got right on applying Master's programs and grad school right away and made it their top priority in their life. At the time the thought of applying for more schooling seemed ludicrous to me, as I thought that my Bachelor of Arts program was plenty for me to handle. I also assumed that my grades would be nowhere near good enough to get me into any post-graduate program.
However, once I started to progress through the fifth and final year of my undergrad and the idea of me finishing and leaving school became very real, I suddenly didn't want to leave. As such, applying to a Master's program was all of a sudden a great idea because I would never have to leave Guelph. I found that I took a lot more interest in my program the further I got into it, so I was the most interested in staying right at the end. By that point it became more a question of "Is there a way for me to keep doing this?" as opposed to "Do I want to keep doing this?"
After I graduated both of my parents (bless their hearts) constantly asked me if I was considering school. I still stuck to the idea that I wouldn't be able to get into any programs. As per usual, Bill and Colleen saw something in me that I didn't and kept the thought in the back of my mind.
As I said in a previous blog, I've been volunteering at a local art gallery for the last few months. Once KWAG posted their summer positions, I noticed that all of them required the applicant to be returning to school in the fall. This made me realize that with only a BA in Art History, I would not be able to procure any type of good employment in my field and also made me think "What the fuck else am I going to do?!" as I'd been working a terrible job in the mean time. I immediately contacted my favourite prof from Guelph (the fabulous Sally Hickson) to inquire about master's programs and, surprise surprise, received positive feedback from her about applying.
So this is all well and good; I feel good about myself for applying and trying to do something to challenge myself, but it is a little nerve-racking. It's mostly that it is such a large step in my life and though everyone I've spoken to about pursuing it has been behind me 100%, I am just over the cut-off and the fear of not getting accepted is doing quite a number on me. I try to find every reason to not work on my application (SURE IS HANDY THAT I DIDN'T DELETE THIS BLOG) and get a bit of a pit in my stomach every time I do things related to it.
But that pit means I'm doing the right thing, doesn't it? It feels the same as when you're nervous about going on a date or nervous before a show. You know that you need to do it, but also know that you need to apply yourself and try hard and put in effort, which can be scary. I find that those type of pits always lead to the best results though, so I guess I'll put my head down, tell the anxiousness festering in my guts to fuck off and try to be the best me I can be.
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