bad blogger, very very bad blogger

So hello again friends.

I disappeared, and I'm sorry.
I believe if is because the point of this blog is about my adventure in the 'real world' and I'm pretty sure I haven't acted like I'm in the real world lately. Cleaning has occurred only in dire situations. Cooking has ONLY involved pasta. No vegetables. Seriously. Any vegetables I purchased in good faith went bad before I touched them, and then they remained in my fridge until that dire cleaning that was previously mentioned. Also, for the most part (especially November), I was exceptionally anti-social and even an ambivalent student. In October I was slightly social, especially around my birthday. Some really cool things happened, but really I've been stagnant for a long time. Oh, and does it even need to be said that I haven't been to the gym since August?

So what happened?

In some cases, there was struggle with my mood. I've been doing good things for it though, but it's annoying that it hasn't been as stable as I'd really like it to be. My life is clearly reflecting a balance issue that I haven't been able to get back in order since the end of August. I have REALLY high hopes for January, I just have to keep pushing myself tonight to keep cleaning and I will really be able to start over when I get back. Hopefully I'll come back calm, satisfied, and refreshed. I'll be sad to be away from friends and family again but I will feel motivated to live a quality life again.

Hopefully.

What I could have been writing about were my classes! I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't include that here for the first semester because, looking back, the growth was really interesting. Around the end of October I believe I started to feel burnt out about it, and really discouraged. Almost all of the material felt a bit too challenging and I started to neglect my readings and dread going to some classes. This is especially for my Critical Race Theory course; it was just so intimidating especially because it was geared for PhD students that I felt very avoidant about engaging with the course. Towards the middle of November, though, it felt as though something suddenly clicked, I started (re-)falling in love with my courses and enjoyed what I was doing. I'm glad that was my ending impression because it makes me really excited to see what next semester will bring. I also feel more prepared for that burn-out period.

For the last week I've done something even cooler, though!

Monday I handed in my last assignment and started the Instructional Skills Workshop for Grad Students! It went on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and it was just SO inspiring! We got to really practice new and exciting teaching techniques and get such valuable feedback. The information felt very complementary to leadership training too. I loved it. I can't express that enough! After it was over, the facilitators said that they are recommending me to the department to get an interview so that I can maybe be a facilitator next year! Man I'd love that.

I also want, more than anything, to be a TA.

PLUS I FINALLY GOT SOME OF MY SSHRC MONDAY TODAY!!!!! WOOOO! More on that later.

Anyway, I suppose that is more than sufficiently long. I'm pretty sure I'm flying back to Ontario tomorrow :). I'm so excited!!! I wish everyone was.

<3