Stolen Soda

For my grad. studies class, I will begin writing the required abstract, and so doing, begin the process of writing my first seminar paper. Never having written one, the prospect of this new task - combined with grading papers while trying to sort out just what the other grad. students and professors are talking about in classes - looms before me omniously.

The looming is not unlike the looming of a unbalanced soda machine slowing falling towards you in your effort to procure a a stolen beverage. While I assure you that I would never try to satisfy my thirst in such a dangerous manner, the squashing metaphor by a half ton machine seems rather apt when compared to the process of writing my first grad. paper.

I still feel on top of things for the most part - after all, I have managed to keep myself fed and clothed and whatnot, but I find that my free time is vanishing in increasingly larger increments. There is an adjustment between grad. and undergrad. work. While I could usually slide through a ten week undergrad course by missing a few classes here and there, and by blowing off the occasional homework, here sliding is definitely not an option. I've also had to continually confront the question (usually in the morning): is this the right path for me? While I'm fairly certain the answer is still yes, the realization that this is the true beginning of future job has been sobering. I had hoped that all of my sobering realizations would have already happened by now.