Summer Bucket List

I’m not a huge fan of daylights savings time, losing an hour of sleep really screws with my system since I’m up early every day anyway. But with the sun streaming through my window while my cat Harriet naps on the sill, I can’t help but be grateful for the promise of longer days in the coming months. Summer has been all I’ve thought about lately, so I’ve been compiling a bucket list in my head.

I’m also writing this so I can procrastinate on finishing my Methods of Social Work Research online midterm (my eyes are bleeding from the dullness of this subject..)

1. Six Flags/Hurricane Harbor – my boyfriend and I went just about every single weekend last summer, and I’m so looking forward to doing the same thing this year.

2. Cape May – This state doesn’t have too many pretty scenes, but Cape May is definitely a gem. Their beaches are also chockfull of sea glass and pretty shells which I collect.

3. Bronx zoo – I wanted to go last summer and never got the chance, so this summer it is! I went once when I was in middle school and I fancied I could communicate with animals because a walrus followed me as I walked around his enclosure. (…maybe I still think this a little – never gona grow up!)

4. Philadelphia zoo – I loved it last year and with Philly being so close and so majestic with its beautiful murals painted across the city, I’d love to go back and do it all over again. I’ve got a thing for animals, can’t you tell?

5. Picnics in the park – Is there anyone who doesn’t love laying out on a blanket in the sunshine and eating a sandwich while reading a book? Pure bliss.

6. Inner Harbor – I went to school in Baltimore for a bit and never really appreciated it while I had the opportunity. Dick’s (the restaurant) and the aquarium are musts.

7. Skydiving – This is iffy. It’s something I’ve always thought about doing, but facing my own mortality by falling out of a plane a couple thousand feet in the air with nothing but a piece of fabric saving me from becoming a human pancake kind of dulls the sheen of excitement on that one.

8. Vacation – This is already set for the end of May. Dominican Republic here I come!

9. Beach – This goes along with Cape May, but I mean the beaches that are only half an hour away from me. I didn’t go at all last summer because I was self conscious in my bikini. This year though, fuck the haters and my insecurities, I’m going to get a tan!

10. Camelback Beach – I took my boyfriend for his birthday last year and an hour in they shut down the park because of thunder and lightning. Almost six hours roundtrip and we got an hour of actual waterpark -_-

That’s it for right now, but I’ll update as I think of more.

Cheers! =) 

Dear….

….PhD candidate playing at being a graduate level professor,

I’m sorry, but you’re just not as effective as a professor as someone who has more experience (teaching and life) than you. Here’s why:

1. You are not that much older than us or farther along in your studies than us, so quit acting like you’re king and we’re your peons.

2. Go over the syllabus the FIRST DAY OF CLASS. Yes, we are aware that it is our responsibility to know what’s due when, but it’s your responsibility to set aside a time to give us a chance to ask any questions about it.

3. Understand that presentations, even at graduate levels, are stressful. Especially for those of us who have anxiety issues. Give us a choice on that, at the very least.

4. If we have a major paper due by the end of the semester, DONT wait until just before spring break to start going over it and answering our questions.

5. Don’t expect us to read every single piece of paper you give us as well as our textbooks. Most of us have full time jobs and other responsibilities and we do not have enough time to read what you give us and what professor A and B and C and D give us as well. You know who can do all that dense reading? Robots who don’t sleep.

6. Assigning a midterm, a final, a 20+ page research paper, and a presentation – all of which count significantly towards our grade – is just cruel. You were in our shoes once. Did being stressed out and near the breaking point help you at all? No, no it didn’t.

7. Group activities are time consuming, and they’re not terribly engaging either if we’re just reading articles and discussing.

8. On that same note, lecturing us off of a PowerPoint is a good way to make us zone out and think about literally ANYTHING ELSE (today’s daydream featured getting a tattoo of the Chapstick brand name on the back of my arm). To be an effective teacher you need to ENGAGE your students, not talk AT them.

9. When you need to use an incentive to get us to come to class, you know your teaching is terrible.

10. Most graduate students who are part time and taking night classes are there because they have full time jobs and families and whatever other responsibilities. It class starts at 6 pm and ends at 8:40 pm, you better be damn sure we’re watching the clock. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT keep us past 8:40. Whatever you have to say is not important to me when the clock hits 8:40. I’m thinking about more significant and pressing matters, like wtf I’m going to eat for dinner because of starving.

I think that about sums it up. Can you tell I absolutely loath my “professor”?

Sincerely,

A frustrated grad student