Starting up

Tomorrow I officially start my life as a full time graduate student. It's been a long time getting here--more than two years since Sarah first suggested we do grad school at the same time. It sounded crazy then, but here we are. I'm mostly excited--no more grading 65 first drafts for awhile (my previous position as a composition instructor) and a chance to pursue my own interests. I feel good about the fit with my program and have several ideas to pursue research wise. To me, the problem is usually narrowing down and giving up on ideas rather than creating them.

There's concerns--balancing parenthood and life as an established homeowner with a grad student lifestyle that feels a better fit for 23 year old unattached folks. Will I have the discipline to find and develop a research focus for a dissertation? How much debt will we accrue? But at this point those feel like welcome challenges to engage and solve. I'm optimistic. Sarah and I have a plan in place with no paid childcare (yay!!) and we've cleared space on our bookshelves for textbooks. We're as prepared as we can be, I think. Bring it on!