Sunday, September 29, 2013

They call me Master Chelsie

I am starting to stress out this semester and need an outlet. So, here is to hoping this is the start of a lot of posts on the life of a PhD student.



In the past six months, a lot has happened.

  • Wrote a thesis
  • Had a new niece (Ashley Marisol Akers)
  • Defended a thesis 
  • Graduated with a Masters Degree
  • Became a brides made (congrats Giulia!)
  • Moved to Tucson, AZ with BFF Alicia
  • Had a new nephew (Hutchinson Fairbanks)- like it or not buddy!
  •  Started first PhD courses
  • Started TA job 
  • Ditched house and moved again
  • Accrued more student loans
  • Consumed more DDP than humanly possible
  • Got a personal trainer 

How is it being a PhD student you ask? Well, It takes me at least three hours to read and hopefully understand the readings from each of my two classes. Then, I have to write papers on those readings, and for each of those classes I have a 10-20 page research paper due in December so I have to start developing and writing them now. Don't forget I have 2 hours of office hours for an online class I am TA-ing (I have yet to have a student come...), then I have to read and respond to discussion board questions from that class for three hours a week (think about how much you disliked writing those posts), and now my research team is starting an experiment that I am interviewing people (with a word for word script I am trying to memorize) for 5 straight hours a week. 

On top of this required stuff, I have figured out that I am too poor to survive on anything but ramen noodles and what self respecting 27 year old should live off of ramen, so I am working on getting a second job. With a masters degree, I am qualified to teach at the community college level. However, Rio Salado requires you to take an online class on how to teach an online class before being able to get a job with them. So, thanks to my dad's credit card, I signed up for yet another class in hopes of getting a job teaching with Rio by the end of the year. 

In other words, I need to stop writing this post and go back to analyzing the 6 readings I need to read for my environmental communications class.