Less Than One Week To Go....

I can’t believe that I am now less than a week away from starting classes.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I got accepted into grad school back in January, so the past eight months have flown by.

My feelings are very mixed as I approach the start of this grad school journey.  For the most part, I am very excited for classes to start.  I have always enjoyed school and love the process of learning something new.  I am ready for a new challenge and am excited about the people that I will meet throughout the course of my graduate school experience.  I am also excited to see what opportunities come my way after I graduate and I know that this will lead me into a job and career that will leave me fulfilled every day.

At the same time, I am also a little anxious about starting grad school.  Change has never been something that I deal with easily.  The thought of going back to school again does make me a little nervous with getting back into the swing of studying, writing papers, doing projects, etc.  I know it will be different than my undergraduate experience and I am not entirely sure what to expect from being in graduate school.  I know that my classes are going to be a lot of work and I will probably get stressed out very easily over my grades and all.  Balancing my classwork along with continuing to work at Barnes & Noble a little bit and maybe getting involved with an organization or two on campus will also be a challenge.  I was also offered a graduate assistantship and I am still waiting to find out all the details of what that is going to entail and not knowing how this is going to work is stressing me out a little bit.  Hopefully I will find out more details before classes start next week.  I know that once I get started all these stresses of uncertainty will go away and I will settle into a routine.  I just need to remember to take time for myself, not over-extend myself throughout the year and also enjoy this whole experience!

In the meantime, this week I am looking forward to sitting by the pool a little bit and crossing some books off my To-Read list!

A Little Vacation Before Grad School Starts

This post is not really related to my grad school journey, but after I got accepted into American earlier this year, I really wanted to take a “last hurrah before grad school consumes my life next year” trip this summer. And, I knew exactly where I wanted to go! 

My dad’s cousins have a condo near Bar Harbor, Maine and after several years of trying to get up there to visit, I finally had the perfect opportunity to book a trip up there and spent the week of July 4th visiting them. 

After an early morning flight to Boston, a 4-hour layover at the airport and another short flight to Bar Harbor, I finally stepped foot in Maine. From the time that I stepped off the plane, I could not get over the beauty of the place and was so ready to experience all there was to do there! My first glance at the beauty of coastal Maine came with this view from my cousins’ condo complex.

Each day during my visit, I went hiking in Acadia National Park and in the process found that I really love the challenge of hiking.  There are hundreds of trails throughout the park and every hike has gorgeous scenery, whether it is overlooking the water, the island towns below, rocky beaches, lighthouses, etc.  My cousins were great guides in showing me around and I also had the best hiking buddies…their dogs, Molly and Jasper! 

Experiencing a small-town Independence Day celebration on this trip was also something different for me as well. For most of my life, I have attended either big city Independence Day celebrations or most recently…working on July 4th and seeing fireworks displays at various baseball stadiums. The parade was your classic small-town parade…lots of old cars, bagpipers, community group performances, along with some Maine touches (Travelin’ Lobster float and Lumberjack Shop float).

At their post-parade festival, there were (in true-Maine fashion) lobster races, which I found incredibly bizarre, but entertaining and of course I had to take video of this! 

 

One of the many highlights from my trip was watching the sun set over Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.

I also spent a good amount of time exploring downtown Bar Harbor, which was true quintessential small-town Maine…lots of locally-owned stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, etc. along the main street.  Of course, I had to go into the independent book store in town just to browse!  And surprisingly, I did not buy any books while I was in there.  The downtown area was also right along the water, which made for some spectacular views along the Shore Path.

I am looking forward to another visit to Maine sometime soon...maybe a post-grad school trip might be in order for next year!

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In my next post – Only a few weeks left until grad school begins…