Media Exposure and Grad School

In one of my first graduate classes, my professor suggested that we each keep a reading journal of what we read everyday because the paper trail can be helpful during research. I thought this a fine idea, but have never had a hard and fast location or ritual for doing so. But here's an opportunity to keep my media list (because I study film as well as literature, I think it just as important to mark what I watch as what I read), so I shall from time to time endeavor to note what books and movies I am presently engaging. Because academia is a lovely, I've had the past month off of school and work and have been able to devote my days to narratives. I have read: Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman), Jack Maggs (Peter Carey), Arcadia (Tom Stoppard) and am currently involved in The Golden Compass (Phillip Pullman), Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller), and The Gunslinger (Stephan King). I have watched: Garden State, Intermission, Croupier, 13 Going on 30, Pride and Prejudice, Neverwhere, Hero, The Aviator, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Blade: Trinity, Dodgeball, In America, Crime and Punishment in Suburbia. This is probably isn't a complete list, but it's a start.

In a few days, I will take the GRE's for the second time in hopes of bettering my first score, and convincing application committees that I am serious about wanting to get my doctorate, which I think I am. I feel like if I ever want to get my doctorate I may as well do it now while I don't have a family to worry about. Graduate school is somewhat selfish in the amount of time it takes; I can't imagine how people form and maintain many meaningful relationships while working full-time at higher education. I feel its all I can do sometimes to keep up with the friends I have now, let alone try to find and develop a relationship with a significant other. One of my 'love languages' (the way I show and receive love) is quality time, so that may be why I struggle.

I am looking forward to the semester starting because I've missed taking and teaching classes. I'm very excited to be teaching in the writing center of my campus, which is a computer lab, so my students will always have the opportunity to work at their own computers--essential for writing in today's world.