As Thanksgiving is closing up, the hardest four weeks thus far academically are over and week of no classes is ahead. It turns out your standards for luxury lower drastically after entering graduate school. Here are some luxuries that will make me happy during next week of down time:
- Getting over 5 hours of sleep per night. (On a side note: lack of sleep really affects your memory. And this is why I will never have children. I would go insane with the lack of sleep.)
- Finding time to go to the grocery store every week instead of twice a month.
- Looking at your schedule and seeing that there are no insane spurts between buildings to get to class next semester. (I am hoping for this, fingers crossed)
- Looking in the fridge and seeing that there is real food instead of stuff scavenged from on campus scientific meeting
- Realizing there is no need to run for the bus since it is not leaving that early on holiday schedule
- Going to a store that sells a good variety of products that are not food. Walmart, here I come!
- Visiting the bank and post office like normal people instead of trying to find a way to do everything online as those places close when you are still normally in class.
- Reading the magazines that have arrived to the house during the past month with out skipping paragraphs (even if they are bio technique magazines and commercials for food).
Alas....this is not a vacation week by any means. I still need to write one huge paper and four short ones. And prepare for finals. It is really true that graduate school in US is rough. Even if you are aware of it, nothing prepares you for the true impact. Luckily you are not the only one in this situation. When complaining about the lack of sleep and other time management issues you can see people nodding, "yes that is how we feel too".
