Four Months in Review

My first semester of grad school is officially over. Here's a review of stuff that happened during those four months of my life.

I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. Before January of this year I had never even been to North Carolina, even though I'd been to all of its border states more than once. I got an apartment, and I lived all by myself for the first time. I also had to furnish that apartment. The Love of Jesus thrift store in Richmond is pretty great. It's especially great if you have a grandpa to refinish a $25 wooden desk and make it look like a $250 desk. I also got a very comfy couch from Katy M., my aunt's favorite chair, and a foot stool that belonged to my great grandmother.

Moving alone to a brand new place where I didn't know anyone, combined with leaving friends and a relationship behind in Richmond, meant I was lonely at times. The good side of this is I have talked to my mom on the phone more in the last four months than I had probably talked to her on the phone during all four years of college combined.

I fell in love with NPR and my local public radio station (WUNC). I woke up to it, drove to it, cooked (well, made sandwiches is more like it) to it, and procrastinated around the apartment to it. In addition to staying relatively current on the news, I also discovered the simple pleasures of Car Talk, A Prairie Home Companion, and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on the weekends.

I found a church that I really like.

I started running (two laps this morning!), ate a little less (little money and no grandma will do it), and lost ten pounds.

I learned (gratefully) that leading discussions and grading undergraduate papers is not as hard as I feared it would be. Next semester will take more work, but I'm not as worried.

I learned a lot about public history and archives. I also learned a lot about theory and different kinds of history, which I actually really enjoyed. While some papers and projects were a pain, I had fun researching and writing my historiography paper, and it reminded me of how I enjoyed writing my senior thesis in college, which is what inspired me to go on to grad school in the first place. So that's good.

I became a regular viewer of Grey's Anatomy on Thursday nights.

I got to visit with family. In college my family was at least a three days drive away, and now my Richmond family is less than three hours away. My dad also came to visit, which was great. Now it's my mom's turn.

I started to make new friends. This has been a big concern for me, but like most things, it takes time. I'm excited to see how these relationships develop next semester.

In sum, I think I grew a lot and had some valuable experiences. I guess you could say it was a pretty good four months.