It's almost midnight on Tuesday, and the night is about to spill over into the dawn of Anzac Day. Like Memorial Day, Anzac Day is the day of rememberence for NZ and Australian soldiers who fought and died in Gallipoli during World War I. Poppies are pinned to the lapels of men and women throughout the city in remembrance of those soldiers who have left this earth in defense of New Zealand's freedom. There is a parade at 5:45 a.m. - a parade I will not make it to...
I have always loved school. I can remember smiling inside when a teacher would assign something that I secretly could not wait to research...and rolling my eyes at my desk when I could hear the other kids around me mumble and groan at the mere prospect of homework. I haven't turned into one of those grumblers, but I can tell you that I'm not flying high above my peers anymore. Graduate school has done a number on my academic cockiness, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that I am finally being challenged. Finals are the third week of June. In between now and then, I've got a stack of papers to research, write, and re-write, and a heck of a lot of in class presentations to get on top of. Somewhere in there, I need to fit in a few hundred pages of reading. Trekking around the North Island last week satisfied my thirst for travel for the time being, but these gorgeous views from the library / my bedroom / all the classrooms on campus make me itch to get outside. My mind wanders constantly, and I'm practically worthless during the day. This leads to late late nights in the quiet of the library, a time of day that I can completely focus. Tonight, I'm making leaps of progress. Tomorrow night, who knows. This ebb and flow of productivity makes it hard to stick to a schedule, but I'm getting the hang of it slowly. I'm not sure that I'll ever get used to having to look up the words of my homework assignment before I can get started, but hey - I'm learning right?
I have always loved school. I can remember smiling inside when a teacher would assign something that I secretly could not wait to research...and rolling my eyes at my desk when I could hear the other kids around me mumble and groan at the mere prospect of homework. I haven't turned into one of those grumblers, but I can tell you that I'm not flying high above my peers anymore. Graduate school has done a number on my academic cockiness, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that I am finally being challenged. Finals are the third week of June. In between now and then, I've got a stack of papers to research, write, and re-write, and a heck of a lot of in class presentations to get on top of. Somewhere in there, I need to fit in a few hundred pages of reading. Trekking around the North Island last week satisfied my thirst for travel for the time being, but these gorgeous views from the library / my bedroom / all the classrooms on campus make me itch to get outside. My mind wanders constantly, and I'm practically worthless during the day. This leads to late late nights in the quiet of the library, a time of day that I can completely focus. Tonight, I'm making leaps of progress. Tomorrow night, who knows. This ebb and flow of productivity makes it hard to stick to a schedule, but I'm getting the hang of it slowly. I'm not sure that I'll ever get used to having to look up the words of my homework assignment before I can get started, but hey - I'm learning right?
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