I apologize that it’s been so long since I’ve posted. I am undergoing a little thing we like to call “Finals Week”. Last night, I gave a 25 minute presentation covering what I intend to write about for my Conrad Term Paper. I wrote out 11 pages in case I got nervous and just needed to read straight from the page. As has been the case with my other grad class presentations, however, I was nervous until I got up to the podium. Then, all of a sudden, I felt at home. I like having the floor to myself, without having to worry about being interrupted. I like being able to explain something I’ve been working on and have people listen. I like making them laugh with me so that they’ll listen with me.
It went great. The Q&A time also went well. The 25 minutes flew by.
So now, all that stands between me and the end of my semester are: 2 Papers, both of which I’m mostly done with, and 2 Finals, one of which is a take home essay. I’m actually really looking forward to that one: it’s simply, “What are the liberal arts, and how do they relate with liberal education?”. The professor just wants us to write 4-5 pages about what we think we’ve been doing all semester. He did give us a few things we could review: readings from Nussbaum, Braun, Newman, Corbett, Aristotle. But mostly, he wants to hear what we gained from the class. This class was personal for him– he is writing a book about teaching the Trivium within the Public School System. Since 95% of the students who took the class are or will be teachers, he knew that he was training the next generation.
I also have to prepare for my MA Comp Test this week. The actual test isn’t until the 15th/16th of January, but I am required to collect 4 essay questions from 4 different professors: an open-ended question, a sonnet question, a novels question, and something else…can’t remember it right now! I then have about a month on which to collect my thoughts about those particular questions. On the 15th, I will join my fellow MA students in a room, where we will basically write for 3 hours. And then 3 hours the next day. The end!
Once my MA Comp Test is done, all that will stand between me and my MA will be my Latin Comp Exam (easy, all I have to do is translate a passage) and my Thesis on the Sonnets, of which I am already halfway done! Spring Graduation, here I come!
But I need to focus on the here and now and get these 2 papers squared away. Even though they aren’t due until next week, Gregory’s baptism is this weekend and my dad and sister are coming into town. One of my finals was supposed to be Monday night, while they were still here, but the professor graciously allowed me to move it. She has really been most accommodating, allowing/requiring me to miss 3 classes, getting the group gift together, putting me in the last group to present so that I could have time to regain my bearings. Last week, she even gave me this car seat contraption she had left from her kids.
Come to think of it, this weekend is going to be super busy! Our former birth class instructor asked Jesse and I to come to one of her classes this Saturday and give our “birth story”. In one sense, I’m surprised she asked us– it’s not exactly encouraging to tell a room full of first time moms that I went through 21 hours of un-medicated labor, a cracked tailbone and an episiotomy that required 8 stitches. I’m sure they’re going to want to hear how I threw up for hours, had to carry an IV fluids bag while I walked around in the middle of contractions, how it took me 2 hours just to push Gregory through my pelvis into crowning position.
Then again, our birth class didn’t have the greatest success, at least, not when you look at it from a natural birth perspective . A room full of first time moms…one just emailed her birth story yesterday. After being 9 days overdue, she went through 3 days of active labor, never dilating past 8. Ended in a C-Section. Another couple had twins in the hospital. Another couple did have a natural birth at the hospital, but it was their 4th, so it doesn’t count 😉 And of course, we know about the couple whose baby died just a week after being born.
The only couple who had a reasonably easy birth (6 hours of labor) moved to Colorado a few weeks ago. So, I guess we’re it!
After we visit the birth class we pick up my dad and sister from the airport. Then the baptism (s) on Sunday (Jonathan is being baptized at the same time– a double godparent/godchild baptism!).
Hopefully I make it through these next two weeks in one piece!
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The Cold Chill of Finals |
This Week Alone… |
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