Get with the program

It took an entire payday (and quite possibly, my first shot at inconveniencing my boss¹) to file everything that I need so I can take my GAT but thankfully, I have generous professors who were kind enough to squeeze my forms into their very busy schedules. It's a bit affirming, knowing that I was exchanging messages with somebody I really look up to, an exchange that started out with my plea for help and then later on became an invitation to chat about novels at the department (!!!). Hey, that counts as something no? School also counts as something I can look forward to in 2011 and hopefully, as a step towards New York (which is my original plan but it sort of fell apart when the world made me realize I'm not academically qualified for a foreign university just yet) within two years. I believe in the power of positive thinking. We will do this.

In any case, I already took my GAT (I took it today! It was fairly easy but we never know) and I've begun preparing for January by revisiting old lectures through my readings and my trusty podcasts (which I used to use as a studying shortcut whenever my readings pile up) from iTunes University².

God, I can't wait to go back. I'm obviously very happy about all of this and if the graduate school motivation graph³ is used as a point of reference, one will be able to tell that I haven't gone far ahead. Which is okay because the most important point of this entry is that I'm right on schedule. And that I haven't given up on my life's Masterplan and/or my dreams.

At least, not yet. (Okay, I hope and pray that I won't ever have to but again, we never know)

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¹Well, I'm not really sure. I think my boss is a genuinely nice person so I got off work easily, but I am speaking only from impression and the premise that I like to believe the best of people. I'm just assuming I got an easy pass because I'm new but I'm very unhappy about missing days from work this early. (The weather also made it impossible for me to go to work last tuesday, jsyk)

² I kind of favor lectures from Columbia University's SIPA program because that's my dream school and program (albeit I am underfunded). Sometimes when I feel like geeking out, I get stuff from the Humanities selection. Favorite: Marianne Talbot.

³ This graph. Get with the program!