Finishing the Semester and the Plan for Times Ahead

Happy Thanksgiving, all! This 5 day break of mine marks the beginning of the last 2 weeks of classes/the last 3 weeks of my undergraduate college experience. Whoaaaa! Time is going at super warp speed now, and I'm cracking down. Time to ignore the other drama surrounding my life (of which there is plenty) and start writing papers, finishing projects, and studying for exams. I'm hoping to end school with a strong academic record that will make me a quality candidate on grad school apps next year, thus this semester is my last chance to ensure that I come off looking like a university rock star!

As for what I'm going to do between now and when I enter a graduate program, I have a couple of ideas to occupy my year and a half off in a productive, educational, and entertaining manner. Pretty much I have the time split into 3 major groups: Spring 2010 (January-May), Summer 2010 (May-August/September), and Next Year (Fall 2010-Fall 2011). Potentially this may become 4 or 5 periods if I decide to get two internships to cover the "Next Year" period and/or if I decide to do something new during Summer 2011 after getting sick of whatever I'm doing during the first 9 months of "Next Year." Anyway, here's the plan so far...

Spring 2010: Ideally, I'll have a 10 week internship in either D.C. or NYC. I've applied to the NMAI, ANHM, and NPS internship programs. All are focused in education or repatriation policy, and I think I'd enjoy any of them. Let's hope I get some interviews and offers in the up-coming weeks. Though, if I do not get any of these internships, there's always a variety of back up plans. I can stay home and get volunteer museum jobs around DE or Philly while working at some bum 40hr bartending/babysitting/administrative assistant gig. I could also move back to Boston and do the same sort of thing too. I also have a chance to get some CRM work in since Shovelbums has had a good quantity of jobs available around NJ, PA, MD, and DE. We'll see where this spring takes me. Pretty much I just want to make enough money to get to this summer, so anything I end up doing will be good as long as I have time to apply to good summer programs, strengthen my resume, and contact grad. programs.

Summer 2010: DIG. Anywhere. Though preferences are in the Mesoamerican Maya Region, Chile/Peru/Bolivia, and anywhere in the USA that's not on the east coast (any time period from pre-Colombian to Victorian historic is totally fine with me). I'm thinking I can get at least 2 digs/2 months of excavation experience added to my resume. And, hopefully, this all will not cost me an arm and a leg. I'm also planning on applying to museum summer programs around the country which relate to conservation, repatriation, and public education... just in case I can't afford to jet set out of the country come May (which is also when I walk for graduation... despite being officially done with school in January).

NEXT YEAR: I have no clue. Frankly, money's not important in the sense of creating a nest egg. Rooming and food is important! So, I'm looking at programs like AmeriCorp, teaching English abroad (in S. America), and teaching private school social Science/History/English. I plan to apply to any and every 9-12 month program that will allow me to eat and have shelter. I also will be sending in my graduate school applications during the fall months, thus something stable would be nice so that I can focus on those instead of worrying about where my next rent payment is going to come from. Then come summer, I may be digging again or decide to just run off and backpack around the world. Who knows?!?! But, I'm confident that things will go as planned for a Fall 2011 admittance into an excellent MA/PhD program in Archaeology. Where the location of that new chapter in my education will begin, I have no idea. But that is a subject for a later blog post!

Right now, things are very up in the air, but I have some general plans and intentions. Just as long as I get into grad school in 2011, I'll be a happy camper. I want my PhD before 30, and that means I have to get in next year. *fingers crossed*

For the next 3 weeks though, there will be no more worrying about the future. It's time for me to focus solely on finishing up my school work. Wish me luck on ending out the year strong!!!

Senioritis

I have senioritis. I'm not proud. But, I'm also not one to deny things, especially when they are blatantly true.

After last week, with all it's hellish assignments and the disaster that was the GRE: Take-One, I'm feeling really unmotivated to finish this semester out. I have 3 weeks left of papers, oral presentations, and exams. I'm so close to being done and entering the real world, but right now, I can barely even focus on waking up before noon. I want to do nothing but watch bad movies like Air-Force One on TBS and buy the family's Christmas presents. Thus, horribly unproductive days like today happen, and I miss out on 12hrs that could have been used to work on my sculpture final or research topics for my theory paper. How can only 3 months of school push me to a point of feeling so miserably unmotivated?!?! I mean, I don't even want to cook dinners anymore; I ate half a bag of still frozen broccoli and a half a chocolate bar for dinner. This is unhealthy!

I need something to give me a kick in the ass this week. So when I come back from Thanksgiving break, I can finish the last 2 weeks strong. I have no idea what that something is, but hopefully I'll figure it out soon... Cause really, Air-Force One?!?!?

GRE- Take 1

Took the GRE today... that was a disaster. Well, ok, maybe not disaster per say, but it wasn't excellent, or even good for that matter. I BOMBED the quantitative math section. No bueno. And the vocab was significantly harder than I was expecting. Why can't the verbal section be made up of nothing but reading comprehension?

On the bright side, I'm pretty much 100% positive I rocked the pants off the writing part. Got a question about the validity of history or some such, thus I got to use all my archaeology knowledge and vocab. Hell yeah, I pulled out phrases like cultural heritage and in-situ! The question was just begging for a little archaeologist like myself to answer it. ;-) The analysis essay was really easy too. Something about face cream that just threw crazy assumptions to the wind. And guess who pulled out the placebo effect and cyclical consumerism? I did, I did! *raises hands in the air*

At least now I know what to expect next time. And I'm very confident in repeating the writing section, which is sorta fun. (Is it weird that I actually may have enjoyed writing the essays?) I also know that I need to start making vocab flash cards and practice percentages/ratios/fractions/non-whole number math problems with a vengeance ASAP! Because it's looking like I'm going to do a re-take at the end of January, leaving myself enough time to take it a third time (if, goodness forbid, I even need to) before May when my extra-time ends. After that I'd need to take another disabilities test, which is a bit of a hassle, but I'll have to do it for grad school anyway. I think it's best to push that test off as long as possible though, so that it stays valid through most of my grad program... silly learning disabilities; what a hassle...

But yeah... so the GRE. Second try is the charm right?

*Gasp*

Wednesday I have a paper due in Ethics and an oral presentation.
My NMAI internship application is due on Friday.
I take the GRE on Friday too.
I also have a GIS project, a Theory paper, and a couple more internship apps. Oh, and the additional busy work and reading that come with weekly classes.

Drowning. Seriously. Drowning in it all.