I realized my entries are a little heavy so let's have a bit of "light reading". Let me give you one reason why I love being in school again: I like it because it pushes me to be better. You know how it's so easy to want things and how it's very, very easy to dream about being this and that? It is, no? But really, how many people follow through and do the groundwork? Exactly. I also like that I can never (probably, will never) be complacent in grad school. There are always so many things I have to work on and every class is a reminder for improvement.
Truth be told, I don't think I'm at the level where I'm supposed to be but the mere fact that I enjoy being in class (despite the equivalent strain grad school brings to say, finances or work) means my learning is going somewhere (I hope to God it is). What I like best about graduate school is that I get to learn so many valuable things from such great people. My teacher, for one, gave sage advice for us who are pursuing further studies. Sure, these are related to our academic concerns (the first one for a published dissertation, the next one on a competitive master's program and the third, for presenting a paper without an outline or a thesis in an international conference) but I thought they're great stuff we could all apply in our lives.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
I've always believed that anything worth doing is not worth doing badly.
It is so easy to earn a reputation for crap but it is not easy to live it down.
Then, I have my classmates who are all awesome in their own way. It's a little disturbing how we're always together in and out of class (or is that my loner tendencies talking?) but I find it nice that we all make an effort to build a relationship with one another, no matter how different we all are. We're currently in that phase where a lot of us quit our old work and have started new jobs, so some of us (like my friend Rach!) get to buy celebratory desserts after a rigorous three (sometimes, three and a half) hour class. (This time, we just finished a three hour and a half discussion on Quants! Quantitative methods! Homoscedasticity! The Central Limit Theorem! Hehe, I enjoyed it though.)
We had our weekly Friday chicken dinner at Manang's. One distinct trait of this group is that we have a propensity for eating so much chicken. I, being a big chicken fan myself, like that the structure was shaped that way (O, YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) If you're a weekend market fan, you'd know that Manang's is a famous stall in Mercato. They sell fried chicken coated with a special sauce (in original, spicy and some other thing. I usually just stick to the original, it's sweet and it tastes like soy garlic). I like Manang's better than Bon Chon but honestly, not better than Flaming Wings because the thick coating could use a little work. Anyway, eating at Manang's is cheap. A meal is only a little over 120 pesos and it makes for a satisfying dinner. Try it yourself! ;)
Then, we moved to Starbucks for even more talking over coffee and cakes. It was great. Although sometimes, I think Starbucks is the Meralco of coffee shops, in that the charges are steep but we all avail of the services anyway.
I really hope I get to be where my teachers are right now (On an IR level, of course. My teachers are really accomplished but still super cool! Although, I can't really talk about them extensively because they have incredible Google and Twitter-fu and it would be awkward in real life.) For now, I'm trying to figure out how to balance school and work better. There must be a system I haven't worked out just yet. After all, anything worth doing is not worth doing badly. ;)
Let me leave you with a funny clip from 30 Rock about graduate students:
Honestly, I don't even know if it's a satire or not. It can bring out the worst in people, or you know, the crazy. But it works, so hey! :)
