Confusion sets in!

Like a good little networking student, I thought I was being proactive by having a meeting with one of my professors today. I thought to myself, "I will have him write me a letter of recommendation for South Africa!" "I will have him help me clarify my career goals." "I will win him over to be my gateway to future employment in the field!"

But after a forty-five minute coffee conference with Dr. X, I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. "Clarify goals" turned into "Why don't you go to Princeton or travel abroad?"

We start the meeting out with coffee and scones--always good. I ask him about his work history. He asks me about mine.
Then he says, "Truman is a pretty good school, isn't it?"
I say, "Yes, it is," very proudly.

Then he starts asking me what my grades were like, how I scored on the GRE, and what my best subjects were--and after a whirlwind of feeling confident and inadequate all at once, he declares that I should probably look at schools like Princeton, Harvard, or Georgetown since they are the top programs and see if I can't get a fellowship?

I thought professors were supposed to advocate for their own school or at least their own program? I'm not sure what to think now. Doesn't everyone want to go to one of those schools? Would they actually let ME in?

I think my professor was just trying to be helpful since his children went East Coast and abroad, but now I'm left to wonder if I should stay in this program or just get a work permit for another country and hope happenstance sets in somewhere down the line?

I've spent all morning looking at work permits for other countries and fellowship opportunities all while I was supposed to be studying for tomorrow's midterm.

Feeling like a wet sponge hopped on possibility.

Social affairs

Me: "He looks so funny!" (referring to my dog's new haircut)

Dad: "Who? Sean?" (my brother)
Me: "Yeah, he is kinda funny looking..."

This week has been a fairly unproductive week. Here I am a day before my first project is due, and I haven't touched my class work (maybe I accidentally brushed up against it once, but that was just to see how it felt...) But at least I'm writing this blog post!

I am happy to say that I got to have a great conversation with a girl named Frank (that was what you had intended for your name, right?) yesterday evening. I also met up with some people I hadn't seen in a dog's lifetime--namely a friend who is going to the Peace Corps for two years and another one who is in med school (my friends are so impressive!). But the event you've been waiting for looks a little something like this:

Our train-ride road trip!

Three ladies in a town full of wine & this is what you get:

Just call me two bottle Katie and a bag of trans-fat Nutter Butters. We were so classy.


Friends from near and far, this is definitely our year.

-K

P.S. In contrast to my previous post, I will not be changing phone numbers. The immature girl that I am with my parents still paying for my phone, I thought I was going to have to switch lines and phone numbers, but I guess now I just have to change something else at the Sprint store? Like my brain. I bet that's it.

I miss writing.

I have a love-hate relationship with blogging. On one hand, I think it's cathartic. On the other hand, that catharsis can become embarrassing when your Uncle Fred is reading it. It's a good thing I don't have an Uncle Fred or this new blog has the potential to be extremely embarrassing! (above: what Uncle Fred might look like)

Today, I would like to talk about cleansing. Not ethnic cleansing or bodily cleansing--life cleansing.

After seven years with the same phone number, I will be changing it this week. At first, I was completely opposed to the idea seeing as this just creates more work for me in figuring out who needs my new #, but then I started to think--this is like a clean slate--one where I can choose who communicates with me and who doesn't (can we say technological weeding-out?). Because who really wants to talk to people our age anymore? A lot of us are unemployed, stressed, or completely fucked-up.

So good-bye phone number; hello censorship.

This new phone number is like investing my metaphorical interests only in things and people that will give me a good return (reading Monday and today's Wallstreet Journal has really paid off, eh?). --Like it'd be unwise to invest in the Japanese Yen right now. I'm not really sure what that's a metaphor for, but you still probably shouldn't invest in the Yen.

As a first post send-off, I hope to write about things someone might find interesting, but no promises. Just awkwardness:

Pet-A-Likes: Peppy

Stay-tuned for the next post about three girls on a train to drunksville, USA!

Photos courtesy of AwkwardFamilyPetPhotos.com