Marking time
The daunting task ahead of me
This is what I have to look forward to over the next week and a half. 75 10 page sociology papers to mark (and afterwards, I think my top priority should be to clean my disgusting Macbook screen). Although I’m enjoying reading and commenting on students papers, it kills me to assign a mark to their work. I know the anxiety of getting a paper back and frantically flipping to the last page to see how you were graded. Of course there are papers that were obviously rushed, and they probably know what kind of mark they’re going to get anyways. But writing university papers is a fine art, and it takes a long of time, sleepless nights, and venti Starbucks to perfect. Some people just aren’t there yet, and it’s hard to mark them down when you can tell the effort is behind it.
TAing isn’t something that I had ever thought of-I actually worked in the department office for a year when I found out they couldn’t keep me on for another year as I’m graduating in December. The head approached me to see if I was interested in TAing. At first, I was apprehensive-what do I know about sociology? It’s only my minor after all-am I really qualified to aid students that are probably the same age as me? The head said “Don’t worry, even the profs probably don’t know everything!” (This didn’t assure me). However, they offered me a position with the prof who taught my Soci 100 class 3 years ago, who was basically the one I credit for developing my interest in sociology in the first place (plus it helps that he’s a hilarious old hippie). When I heard that, I decided to take the job.
And I’m so glad that I did. I’m quite nervous at public speaking, and TAing has really helped me become more comfortable discussing my thoughts and knowledge with students. Plus, it feels great to now be working with the prof who first introduced me to the field three years ago. Since this is my last term at university, it definitely feels like I’ve come full circle.
Plus it kind of helps that the students seem to think I’m pretty cool (I hope).
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Generation A
Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favors when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago.
-Kurt Vonnegut, Syracuse University Commencement, 1994
It’s funny how ends are almost always a beginning as well. Right now, I am two months shy of graduating university, something that has crept up on me faster than I ever thought would. Everywhere around me there’s talk of changes, and this is the first time that I haven’t known exactly what is going to happen next. It’s pretty scary shit! At the end of high school, I knew exactly what uni I would get into, what I wanted to study, and what I was going to do with it afterwards. Fastforward 3.5 years later, and all that has completely changed. You know that cheesy saying “Life is what happens when you’re making plans”? Well, it’s pretty spot on if you ask me. Now I’m trying to navigate post-grad options and twiddle my thumbs waiting to hear if I’ll even be in Vancouver come next fall (which, as much as it rains here, is really where I want to be).
I read this quote a few months ago on the back of a Douglas Coupland book, and it has really stuck with me since then. If I could sum up how I feel about life right now, it’s there. Things are coming to an end, but there’s so much to look forward ahead of me!
I’m not sure what this blog will end up becoming-probably just a place to post what I’m thinking about or interested in at the moment-be it fashion, food, work, or just life in general. So bear with me! This blog will be in transition as much as my life is right now!
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