Love, Hate, and Grad School

As I sat in class tonight, listening to my Clintonista professor repeatedly bash President Bush (one of his favorite things to do) in addition to resurrecting the entire dirty event we now know as Election 2000, I wondered why I am submitting myself to this torture...and went on to formulate a list of things I like/hate about grad school. Here's what I came up with...

Likes:
1) EVENING CLASSES!-no more worries about sleeping through my 9 a.m. on Thursdays after the usual drunken mid-week celebrations (celebrating nothing, as usual...haha, good times). Or for that matter, any other 9 a.m. class.
2) Classes that meet once a week-if you get stuck w/ a crazy professor, I have found one block of time per week to be much more bearable than a MWF w/ the same lunatic. Luckily, I haven't had any severe crazies so far, just raging left-wingers...no surprise there, it is academia.
3) Studying ONLY what I want to-more or less, I get to plan my track of courses for my M.A. degree-there are only two specific courses I HAVE to take, the rest is flexible.
4) Less tests, more papers-I've only had 2 tests so far (and they were in a class w/ undergrads), and I'll have no tests this semester-this is a huge relief to me, seeing as I have horrible test anxiety.

Hates:
1) I didn't think it was possible, but yes, there is WAY more reading now than anything I ever experienced back at UIUC. I'm keeping up...but it's a pain.
2) Having my professors constantly trying to convince me to go on and get my Ph.D.-"if you're putting the time and effort into your M.A., why stop there?" they say to me-ugh. Just drop it already.

So, the pros have it...grad school is favorable, overall, in addition to the fact it is curing me of the reckless habits of my undergraduate career (specifically, using any excuse available to party at the most random times, including tuesday nights). I'm lucky now if I go out to the bars a couple of times per month-yeah I'm a nerd. I've replaced White Horse Wednesdays w/ evenings at Brookens buried in the back corner reading the AJPS. I've become a weekends-only gal.

In other news...

Actually, there is no other news. I've been working on my thesis proposal and interning and keeping up on my readings for class-yeah it's exciting. That's another thing about grad school-the workload is intense, especially when balanced w/ an internship and a part-time job. Anyway, it's about time for bed...I'll post later when I have stuff of an exciting nature to discuss...until then, adieu.