Day One Good & Done

If you're reading this, then it means something very important...I SURVIVED DAY ONE OF GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!  Cue the cheers of excitement and washed off nerves & jitters.

For those of you who don't know, I am currently pursuing my Master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology at George Washington University (as evidenced by the lovely campus snapchat filter above).  It's a great school in a remarkable city (have I mentioned how much I love DC yet???), and after yesterday I can say with confidence that I have some pretty awesome professors.  Enough giddy excitement aside, I am enrolled in a 3-year Master's program.  I know what you're thinking: "but Hannah, aren't post-grad programs only one year?"  Well, yes and no.  Yes being that most post-grad programs are two years, with the exception of programs like law school and med school that require an extra 1, 2 or forever years of your life.  What makes my program different is that this year I am in what is kind of a transition program; this year I am taking 9 undergraduate courses that are the baseline prerequisites required for entry into a Speech-Language Pathology Master's program.  And basically what that means is that every Tuesday & Thursday between now and May (with the exception of the occasional school break here and there and some final exam days) I get to spend my entire day in the classroom learning new concepts with my classmates and about 3-4 additional days per week processing that information in the form of homework.  Note I said only 3-4 because 1) it is DC and I am trying to do at least one new thing a week here and 2) you need at least one day a week to do nothing and relax.  Obviously this will change once the homework really gets going and tests start happening, but it is important to be able to enjoy your surroundings and take it all in.  Of course, today will most likely consist of homework and going to the gym and doing other important errands, but plans for something fun this weekend are in the works and I have two more friends moving up here for internships this week.

So...recap of the story here?   1) Grad school is awesome and I love it already. 2) I basically have my life consumed by academia for the next 3 years. And 3) It is totally okay to create a life-school balance, as long as you get everything done.