A Lesson Learned from my First Week of Grad School

The first week of graduate school taught me that I’m a nut job, or a “whack job” as my professor informed me. This is how it went down:

Friends and family give you advice and help guide your path, or at least that’s what I believe. You say you understand something and will or won’t do it according to what they tell you. Then you do the opposite of what the advice was, just so you can find out for yourself. You don’t like it (or dislike it) until you try it, right?

My close friend told me not to work full time while going to graduate school, warning me how stressful it is. I already knew I wouldn’t have a “real” job while at Hofstra, so I agreed that it is crazy and I never would. Fast forward a few months and I am now interning five days a week (at Newsday.com and WNBC). I’m still a full-time student and still report for my school’s television station and write for Her Campus. Technically I’m not “working” full time—just interning full time.

Unlike the beginning of my senior year of undergrad, I have no inspirational things about which I learned or lessons to share. So what did I learn the first few weeks of graduate school? Do not work/intern/do anything full time while being a full-time student and partaking in extracurricular activities.

I’m not complaining. It’s just hard. It’s full of long, draining days. But it’s rewarding.

I really wish I had a pile of rainbows and flowers to talk about, but I don’t. So here’s to another semester of relentlessly working towards my dreams and soaking in as much as I can.

Whitmanythought 1: When can I go on a vacation?