So I know I've strayed away from the original topic of this blog - my graduate career - but that's the fragmented way I work. Get used to it. But today I return with an update.
While most of my friends have or are graduating with their Master's degrees and either getting promoted at work or moving on to PhD programs, I continue to struggle along to finish my damn thesis. No motivation other than just wanting it to be DONE! It looked like August was to be my golden month. Finally. I could apply to be an adjunct instructor at one or multiple of the schools in town and prepare for my PhD applications in the fall. Then Monday morning happened.
Working on my project, no big deal - really quite a simple and mundane one of the type they usually give new undergrads. The iPod was playing in my ears and time was passing quickly. Then #2 boss comes and asks me to go with her to #1 boss' office. Both wonderful people whom I chat with regularly, but I've never been summoned to see them both in a closed-office meeting before. My mind started reeling - what have I done? I swear, I only check Facebook on my breaks! Am I about to be laid off? They can't do that to a student appointment, can they? Especially one of their more experienced ones? Of course, that means I cost more money than undergrads and we are facing possible budget problems here... Am I conforming to the dress code today? Boss #1 doesn't like it when we wear sandals to work... The other student-workers watch warily as I walk away.
By this time we've arrived at Boss #1's office and have all taken our seats. I initiate the short social banter required, asking Boss #1 how his visiting lecture at a Midwestern university earlier this week had gone. Soon, though, the conversation transitions "well, Dirt Worshipper, we brought you in here today to offer you an opportunity.." Great, sounds like a pyramid scheme.
But no, as I listen to them lay out their plan, it slowly sinks in that I'm being offered a promotion! The catch - I'll be promoted, provided I delay graduation until December so that I can still work on a student appointment. Oh crap. Not again. A full 3 1/2 years to complete a freakin' master's? So I delay graduation. Giving me a few extra months to work on my thesis, therefore hopefully not making my life a hellish existence as this summer was lining up to be. In return, I get a promotion in rank, almost 5 extra dollars an hour, quicker accumulation of leave, new job title, and completely new duties to learn. (Unfortunately, my new job would be to learn and cover the duties of a dearly-loved co-worker who is undergoing cancer treatment.) The new position is open-ended, expected to continue to September, but possibly extended depending on when said co-worker is able to return. I am given a week to decide, but they want to know ASAP.
Crap. Can I swallow my pride and delay graduation AGAIN? When I might have actually made it this time? If I accept, I'm being promoted without a degree when my friend/co-workers had to complete their degrees before being promoted to the same level? Is this going to cause bad blood? Can I handle the increased work hours that this will require?
On the otherhand, I wasn't looking forward to being unemployed in three and a half months. Thanks to a paperwork snafu earlier in the spring, there was no possibility of my staying on past graduation. Then I would have had to look for a job. Even an adjunct position would have to be supplemented by other job(s) to make ends meet. This would be guaranteed employment at a living wage until December, covering a time when I'm going to have the costs of new GREs and those horrendously expensive application fees for potential new programs. And, now that someone had voiced doubt I would finish by August anyway, I began to wonder myself.
All this whirled through my head for two days. Then I thought crap. Is this really a decision at all?? Barring any reasonable and convincing objections from my advisor tommorow, take the money and run!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Requisite Earth Day Post
Several bloggers out there have expressed their fatigue with all the "green" issues of magazines and the promotions of Earth Day. To some degree, I agree with this. The conversion of a grass-roots effort to promote environmental responsibility to a commericialized holiday of sorts runs the risk of diluting an important message. A message that has little time left to be transmitted before it's too late.
On the other hand, the increasing awareness of ways people can "green" their lives combined with the increasing affordability of environmentally responsible foods and products can only be a good thing. In a difficult economic situation, organic foods and expensive green products can not compete with mass-market, mass-produced, cheap, inexpensive items. So if in the name of a "green" earth-day issue, a magazine is willing to provide simple recipes for vinegar-based household cleaners, or recommend the best phosphate-free dishwashing detergent, then go for it. I just hope the information reaches the people who need it, and doesn't get lost among thousand-dollar designer dresses made from organic bamboo cloth.
So what am I doing this earth day? I'm reflecting on what I and the Writer currently do to be green and setting goals (Earth Day resolutions, if you will) that are hopefully attainable in the next year.
Things we do already:
- dry clothes on drying racks instead of the dryer (except for sheets for obvious reasons)
- use phosphate-free dishwashing detergents
- use natural, environmentally friendly household cleaners
- cut up old, holey cotton t-shirts into handing cleaning rags that are washed and repeatedly used
- use multiple small dishrags I knitted from cotton yarn instead of paper towels in most cases
- vigilantly keep lights off in rooms no one is in
- keep the heat down and rarely use the air conditioner (easy with a basement apt in summer)
- switched to coffee (ALWAYS consumed from re-usable containers) instead of pop, eliminating the aluminum cans
- carry lunches in all re-usable containers
- use as many natural toiletries as reasonable (deoderant, toothpaste, lip balm, etc.)
- walk or use the bus to go to school, work, and the grocery store
- use the comics from the newspaper to wrap gifts
- recycle as much as possible in our community
Goals for the next year:
-switch to cloth napkins from paper
-begin using recycled paper towels for the one roll we go through in a year
- switched to recycled toilet paper
- buy an iced tea maker to make my own so we can stop buying plastic gallon jugs of it
- buy/make cloth re-usable gift bags
- in the summer, switch daily schedule to coincide as much as possible with hours of daylight - decreasing the use of artificial light
- use local food co-op and farmer's market to obtain veggies and fruits in season, as well as locally raised meat
We'll see how we're doing next year. In the meantime, hopefully the message that environmental responsibility is possible - even in these economic times - will continue to spread.
On the other hand, the increasing awareness of ways people can "green" their lives combined with the increasing affordability of environmentally responsible foods and products can only be a good thing. In a difficult economic situation, organic foods and expensive green products can not compete with mass-market, mass-produced, cheap, inexpensive items. So if in the name of a "green" earth-day issue, a magazine is willing to provide simple recipes for vinegar-based household cleaners, or recommend the best phosphate-free dishwashing detergent, then go for it. I just hope the information reaches the people who need it, and doesn't get lost among thousand-dollar designer dresses made from organic bamboo cloth.
So what am I doing this earth day? I'm reflecting on what I and the Writer currently do to be green and setting goals (Earth Day resolutions, if you will) that are hopefully attainable in the next year.
Things we do already:
- dry clothes on drying racks instead of the dryer (except for sheets for obvious reasons)
- use phosphate-free dishwashing detergents
- use natural, environmentally friendly household cleaners
- cut up old, holey cotton t-shirts into handing cleaning rags that are washed and repeatedly used
- use multiple small dishrags I knitted from cotton yarn instead of paper towels in most cases
- vigilantly keep lights off in rooms no one is in
- keep the heat down and rarely use the air conditioner (easy with a basement apt in summer)
- switched to coffee (ALWAYS consumed from re-usable containers) instead of pop, eliminating the aluminum cans
- carry lunches in all re-usable containers
- use as many natural toiletries as reasonable (deoderant, toothpaste, lip balm, etc.)
- walk or use the bus to go to school, work, and the grocery store
- use the comics from the newspaper to wrap gifts
- recycle as much as possible in our community
Goals for the next year:
-switch to cloth napkins from paper
-begin using recycled paper towels for the one roll we go through in a year
- switched to recycled toilet paper
- buy an iced tea maker to make my own so we can stop buying plastic gallon jugs of it
- buy/make cloth re-usable gift bags
- in the summer, switch daily schedule to coincide as much as possible with hours of daylight - decreasing the use of artificial light
- use local food co-op and farmer's market to obtain veggies and fruits in season, as well as locally raised meat
We'll see how we're doing next year. In the meantime, hopefully the message that environmental responsibility is possible - even in these economic times - will continue to spread.
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