As requested by my clamouring fans....

So, yes, I went back to university.  And in June of this year, I graduated with a Bachelor of the Arts (Honours) in English and Cultural Studies.  Graduated with distinction, no less.  So having gone back, and having graduated, what did I proceed to do with my newfound education, and its attendant piece of paper?

I went back to university, of course.

It is now three weeks into my Master's program.  I am overwhelmed with work.  Aside from two classes this term, I am also TAing for a first year English course.  This involves lesson-planning and essay-marking for about 35 students, and teaching (or facilitating discussion) twice weekly.  And I'm getting my proposal together for the 100-page MA thesis I will be writing this year.  And I'm putting together grant applications for OGS and SSHRC for my PhD work.  And I'm sick.

Somewhere in there I'm supposed to find time to be a dad and a husband, though those two things seem to fall low on the list of priorities right now.  I am extremely fortunate to have such an understanding and supportive family.

Complaints aside, grad school's pretty fucking awesome.  Both of my classes are on Mondays, so I come in for Canadian Literary Celebrity at 9:30.  The class is 8 people and the professor, sitting around a table and discussing theories of celebrity in literary culture.  It's excellent.  At 3:30, I have Sexuality of Genre, in which we are studying the concurrent maturation of the novel and discourse of sexuality.  Lot's of reading in this one, but I have a presentation next Monday that I'm really excited to be giving.  Mainly because I'll get to do a powerpoint presentation with pictures of naked giant women in it.  What other job can boast such a perk?
On Tuesday nights I have a tutorial for English: Shorter Genres at 6, the lecture from 7 until 9, and another tutorial until 10.  The professor for that course, Jeffrey Donaldson, is also my supervisor for my thesis, and someone I very much enjoy working with.  So, slight nerves about teaching anyone anything aside, Tuesday night is pretty enjoyable too.  Though it sucks not being able to get together with the Tall Guys for our Tuesday nights, as we have been for the last 5 or so years.
So basically I'm done after Tuesday.  I do seem to have one or two meetings a week that I end up driving in for, but I think those'll stop once my grant application stuff is done.  Not that I can get used to this wonderful schedule, as next term I'm going to be here every day, though some only for an hour.  Which is a drag, but what can you do?

And that's about all I can say about it right now.  I have to admit that in the first couple of weeks, I wondered what the hell I'd let myself in for, but I think I'm beginning to wrap my head around it now.  For my undergrad, it was like a part-time job.  I could take a day off and not fall too far behind.  Grad school's different.  It's a full-time job.  And let's be honest, it's been a long time since I've held one of those.  Even my last official "full-time" job really only took up about 25 hours a week.  This one's definitely more than that.

My body aches from illness, brought on no doubt by stress.  I miss seeing my friends every week.  But I am soaking up the knowledge.  I am so ready to get my thoughts down into a long-form paper.  The bureaucracy surrounding MA thesis approval is infuriating, because I just want to start writing.  Not that I think it'll be turned down, but I never let myself feel too sure about things.

And with that, my office hour is over.  No one came to visit me, but that's okay. It gave me time to talk to you.