Back to School

For me, New Year's Day will never have the same resonance of a fresh start as the first day of September. Maybe it's the chill in the air, maybe the Staple's school supply sale, but whatever it is it, fall is the time to reboot and embrace a new beginning.

Nothing like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils....


After an incredibly busy summer spent in the States tying the knot (that's right, I'm a Mrs. now, or as my good friend Monica B. would say, a matron!), I'm back in Spain working like crazy trying to put the finishing touches on my AfL project. Though I went back to Michigan with the best intentions of working for a few hours all summer, let's be honest, the wedding trumped all else. I mean, really, what would you rather investigate?

or........

That's what I thought. 

I made my best efforts to get out of the house for a few hours a day and do some writing at Caribou (the midwestern version of Starbucks, mmm) with my little sis, Anna. According to my to-do list, the goal was to submit a draft of the entire project to my thesis advisor by the beginning of July, before I went back home and the wedding festivities commenced. But sometimes even the best laid plans get squelched and I found myself sucked up into a whirlwind of adventure for the entire month of August. 

By the time the honeymoon was over (literally), I had an email waiting for me from my advisor saying that she hoped I had completed everything, as she had to submit my final grade by September 15th. 

My reaction: "Jigga what??"

I was under the impression that I had until the end of September to finish the entire study including revisions, before submitting it to the defense tribunal in October. Apparently not! So, I did what any procrastinating grad student would do....from the minute my flight touched down on September 5th, I locked myself away and miraculously finished everything. Not exactly the back to school homecoming that I was used to, but sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to get the motivation we need. Right?

Half of the battle has been won, but I still need to wait for my advisor's approval on the revised document before submitting it to the tribunal. My defense will be sometime in late October and hopefully it will go better than that of the Japanese linguistics candidate (see previous post). We shall see!!!

In the meantime, I think it's time to bring this blog out of study mode and start expanding its horizons. You might be pleasantly surprised to see some posts about non-grad school related themes. 

In the meantime, do you have any procrastination stories?