It's 7:30 Monday morning and I finally finished my homework for the weekend. Actually, that's not true. I only read and summarized three -- not five -- research articles because those were the only ones I could download electronically. I still have to go to the library and find bound copies of certain academic journals. I also didn't finish reading everything about the fathers of communication theory, but I did read the most important stuff. I can't believe Dr. R really expected us to read 150 pages -- that's almost triple what she usually assigns. I also didn't get to even touch my thesis work and I still don't have all the guest speakers I'm trying to get nailed down for both Mass Comm week and for my classes. As for writing thank you cards to the speakers I had last week...
Maybe the better statement is that I have finished everything I could get done in this weekend. I only had three days and worked an average of 9-10 hours each day. No movies, no dinners out, no spending time with friends. Doug and I did watch Shall We Dance on tv Saturday night -- the movie was mediocre at the best. No wonder I'm having difficulty sleeping.
I stayed up until midnight last night reading for Dr. R and woke up at 5:30 this morning with my mind started racing, thinking about today's lecture and tomorrow's lecture and finishing the summaries for instructional comm and everything else. On one hand I am looking forward to working out with my trainer today just to relieve some stress. On the other hand, I could spend that extra time working on school stuff.
My workload this semester has started heavy and there is no sign that it will let up. I've already had to cancel a weekend trip to Galveston and decline an invitation to a day trip to San Antonio and a weekend camping trip/birthday party in the hill country. I really miss the fun I had over the summer doing things with our friends and am looking forward to the time when I can have my weekends back. It's just three months until semester break! Also, next semester I am not taking as many hours and the one class that is actually a class is an intensive, 3-weekend class. Once that's over, it will just be wrapping up my thesis. As for teaching, I should be able to use the class lectures from this semester; this means I might actually have a bit of fun in the spring.
People, particularly my professors, continue to ask me about getting a PhD. I'm not so sure I want one. The idea of spending four more years like this just to do a PhD, and then six years after doing research to earn tenure is looking doubtful. The good thing is that in this field I can teach, either full- or part-time, without a PhD and the research headaches. Working and teaching one night a week is looking very appealing right now.
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