So, in light of the previous instability of my life, I've decided what to do this summer (I think). I'm planning on not working unless some acceptable job falls into my lap and studying for my field exams. There does seem to be a light at the end of this tunnel of school. I have finished all but one of my courses, which I'll be taking in the fall and will help me study for exams as it is a seminar on British Literature from 1880-1920; I've passed my reading requirements in two foreign languages; now, I've just got to pass field exams and write the dissertation.
I'm not so much worried about the dissertation. I have an idea that I think is interesting and mildly innovative, and I know I can write. It's these field exams that are scaring me. I'm planning on taking them in January, where there will be two days with a four hour block in which I answer three questions which proves that I fully understand and can teach my fields. If ever there was a this-test-determines-the-rest-of-my-life sort of moment, it's this one. You can retake the tests once, but after that, if you don't pass, you're finished. Thanks for playing the past three years of your life were wasted. So, in order to avoid that, I'm starting the studying now.
First up on the menu: Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, which will perhaps prove to be a bit more intellectually demanding than 28 Weeks Later and Knocked Up, which I saw last night. Sometimes I wonder at the trashiness of my taste...
2 comments:
AHHH, how was knocked up??
It was amusing. There were some gross appeals to the college party boys that I teach that I surely could have done without. Paul Rudd was in it and better looking than ever.
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