School is in Full Swing

Whoa! Guess time just got away from me.

I've been aware of the common stereotype that graduate students are stressed, no life, shut-ins that don't have time for anything. I'd even heard of mathematics students having to schedule casual down time, or else they'd not do it. Last year, I kinda felt that way. I had a decent amount of homework, and I had things to keep me busy, but I never felt an overwhelming pressure that eats up all my time, even Saturday nights.

Until about the third week of class this year.

I've got this giant amount of work I want to do. Last year, I had homework to finish, and that was about it. But now, wow. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the week.

Perhaps this is how I should have been last year. But it didn't feel this way before.

The good news is that it feels a lot better. Last year, I felt like I knew nothing and was going to fail out of grad school. Now, I can see all the new first years from a different perspective. I can see that more than half of the students I met in the first year are no longer here. Things make sense that didn't previously, and I'm getting things done.

In short, the overwhelming feeling that I am stupid has diminished. I still feel stupid, but now I feel like I can do something about it. Which is why I have been studying so much.

I've got a few more things to say, but I'll split them up into different blog posts to avoid one long sputtering post.