Today started out very badly. I got up at 1:00 a.m. to register for my LAST TWO graduate classes. I had hoped to take two relatively easy electives in July… a simple 4-week session that might turn out to be a bit intense, but then I’d be DONE with classes and only have my thesis to write this fall. I could practically coast right into graduation in December.
But best laid plans, right?
I woke up at 1:00, only to be locked out of the enrollment site. I was trying to beat all the other students who were also gunning for those two easy classes. So I tried again at 6:00 a.m. And again at 8:00 a.m. That’s when I got the bad news…
I can’t take those two classes, because I am not in that program. But the catch-22 is, I am required to take electives outside my program. And I’ve already taken just about every class my program offers. So I’m stuck. There’s literally no summer classes for me to take. Which means I now have to take two classes this fall. And then DELAY my graduation until May 2010 while I finish that thesis.
That’s when the tears started to flow.
I had been so excited about the possibility of being finished with grad school in only a few months. I’ve been on this merry-go-round of demands for the past three years, and I’m tired. I haven’t had a good night’s rest in months. I’m ready to quit. The only thing keeping me going was the knowledge that I’d be finished in December. Until now.
So I cried. Those big, ugly, crocodile tears. The kind where the mascara runs down your face, and you don’t even care. Thank goodness my office has a door, so nobody else witnessed my extreme moment of weakness.
Thankfully, the head of my department is also my professor this semester, so after a frantic phone call to him, he started working to see what he can do (bless him). It looks like they’re going to try really hard to find me some random classes to take. But of course, these random classes won’t be nearly as easy as the other two. I will continue to have no life this fall… something I thought I might get back. But no, probably not.
Thankfully, my very bad day got much better, because it was Opening Day for my beloved Rangers, and my friend scored me third row tickets for the big day. A few hours of sunshine and baseball helped me gain perspective (or at least helped the tears stop). My team won, and someday I may even look back on this little class scheduling snafu and laugh about it.
But right now I’m just going to try not to cry. And I’m going to finish off the ice cream left in my freezer.