Things have been fantastically busy here. About a month after the last post, the wife and I welcomed our daughter into our lives a few weeks early. Graduate school has become progressively more intense the closer I come to defending my thesis. Last but not least, my employment situation has simplified itself considerably but with a considerably negative impact on our bottom line.
It’s no wonder that I cried out “m’aidez”. And people answered.
The school has a range of support services which until recently I had never encountered. The family and child care support alone impressed me. While we weren’t able to afford the on-campus day-care, the child-care subsidy helps us afford enough day-care for me to spend the requisite time on campus to finish my degree while I make less than minimum wage normalized over the week. I’ve spent more time at the counseling center, and they have helped me a lot as well as pointed me at folks like the ombuds. With all of this help, I expect to make it all the way to August to finally defend my thesis and finish my degree.
Support on the home front has been amazing. My wife has been patient and understanding and has provided some really great feedback and encouragement, and I can’t say enough about her. A while ago we decided to go on little outdoorsy “retreats” for our birthdays, and mine was last month. It was an excellent opportunity to be introspective and think hard about what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be, and how I wanted to get there. Some resolutions which came out of this retreat were easier than others to implement – this blog post being one of them – but I feel like some of these changes might actually stick.
I have a few other ideas for posts with regard to my research, and some geeky things I’ve been up to, but for now that’s enough.