Sunday, December 05, 2010

The First Home Stretch

Today I wrote a paper.  

Actually, it was a policy memo, but potato, potahto.   The subject was democracy in the Philippines.  I wrote about rule of law and corruption and human rights violations and governance and election fraud and civil society.  Fascinating, no?
 
You want to read my policy memo now don't you?  

I sat in front of the computer for hours poring over my research and slowly, slowly filled a mockingly blank page with words.  The paper is not due for a few days and that's good, because some, maybe many, of the words will have to be changed, they aren't good enough to be permanent.  And, truthfully, the memo isn't complete yet, but it's close and it will be finished soon enough and then I can check one more big thing off my "I'm almost done with the semester" check list.  

There are only 4 items left on the list.  

Short entries, no more than two words apiece, but they represent huge commitments of time and brain power.  4 items and I'll have one whole semester of graduate school under my belt -- 9 credits done.

DONE.
  
I love grad school.  I do.  But, I'm ready for the end of this semester.  I've already registered for my next courses, bought the books, worked out childcare and filled my winter break to bursting with social obligations and fun.  I'm so close, I can taste it, and it's delicious.  So close, very, very close.

Random Act of Christmas #4:  Because I was indoors all day today, my random acts of Christmas options were somewhat curtailed.  But, since man cannot live by studying alone, or at least this woman cannot, I took study breaks, several actually.  And each time I did I searched for a "click to donate" website.  You know the ones, where by clicking you can help solve world hunger?  I know some of these are hoaxes, but I also know many are legitimate and the sponsors actually do put their money where the clicks are.  

It took fractions of a second, but if even one of these links is real and an extra dollar or two makes its way to breast cancer research or someone gets clean water because I clicked, then yippee! 

If you'd like to do some clicking yourself, here are a few links that seemed reputable (some were interactive too):



3 comments:

terahreu said...

Congrats on getting another semester of grad school behind you! That is no small feat! It does feel sooooo good. I think my entire grad school was writing words, any words, to fill a paper. A paper with words is better than a blank sheet. I follow the same philosophy with my blog. ;)

Robin said...

I graduated with my Masters of Science when I was 9 months pregnant with child #3. Whew! It was hard work. I look back on that and wonder how in the world I did it. When I read your blog I wonder the same thing. Hard work. Great mommy. You are awesome.

Lauren in GA said...

You are amazing, my dear. I love your writing here on the blog...so, I have no doubt your papers for Grad School are pretty amazing as well.

 

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