The New Normal

Last Wednesday, the semester officially began. Before I started, I was not entirely sure what to expect. The life of a graduate student is very different from the life of an undergraduate. I have an office (!) with two wonderful office mates. My desk is spacious and surrounded with photos and quirky little souvenirs from the places I have visited. We have a couch. And a fridge, coffee maker, and a toaster oven. We also have a lone hermit crab and two leopard geckos named Eli-zard-beth and Falkor.

I am taking two courses, two seminars, and I am teaching two lab sections for intro organismal biology for freshman. My first day of teaching is this Friday. I am extremely excited but nervous. The thought of twenty pairs of eyes staring at me while I stand at the front of the room seems slightly intimidating. But, I watched an experienced IA teach a lab today so I feel a little more comfortable.

The old normal was up at 5 AM and off to work at the kitchen at local nursing home in Cambridge, MN. It was coming home at 1:30 or 2:30 PM and exercising. Dinner was ready around 6 or 7. Blake only worked 40-45 hours a week and was home for dinner every night. The old normal was driving an hour to the Twin Cities, but I drove there once or twice a week. My mom, dad, and brothers were only an hour's drive away. It was filled with satellite television, a very generous aunt and uncle, miniature dachshunds and four cats. There was a compost pile and a variety of avian species that visited the backyard. It was full of waiting. The old normal was a limbo.

The new normal is awake around 7:15 AM, then breakfast with organic coffee, served black. Music plays while I get dressed and brush my teeth. It is hot all of the time. When I left my apartment this morning at 7:35 AM, the temperature was already 82 F. Sweat was pouring off me as a locked up my bike outside the Supple Science Building. The new normal is finding me in my office. It is only seeing my parents and brothers through a video chat online (wonderful, wonderful technology!). It is Blake leaving for work at 7:25 AM and arriving home around 7:30 PM five, sometimes six, days a week. The new normal is a busy schedule. It is grocery shopping at the H-E-B (Here Everything's Better), purchasing gas from the Yellow Store/Shell Stations or Valero. It is filled with mockingbirds, live oaks, Carolina chickadees, and rivers. The new normal is eating breakfast tacos with hot sauce. The new normal feels right.

This whole experience still feels like a dream. I often think, "I live in Texas??!!?!?! I am a graduate student now??!? LIFE IS CRAZY!!!"

Last year was wretched and full of uncertainty. I am so glad I made it here. I absolutely love it. I feel extremely lucky.

I am going to study loggerhead shrikes for my thesis.

Life is good.