I am not sure why I did not see it coming, but last week was Hell and I was not mentally prepared for it.
Remember that MIT class I told you about that lasts only half of the semester? It will be great once it’s over because I will suddenly have significantly more time to focus on work, but right now it means that midterms have passed, and the final is a week from now. The class requires a lot of reading, which I love because I don’t feel like I read enough anymore, and a lot of writing, which is great because I have not practised this type of writing since high school. I love reading, and I can hardly believe that I am already in my last year of college and it is only the first time I am taking a literature class. The class is actually really interesting. It is called Bestsellers: Literature Without Borders and the books we have read and discussed have generally been pretty great, even though I probably would not have picked them up myself. I have noticed that I tend to read mostly white female authors, so I have been happy to read a more diverse set of authors. The following are all the books we will have read by the end of the class, which ends in about a week and a half:
- Maus I by Art Spiegelman (Jewish background)
- Brother, I Am Dying by Edwidge Danticat (Haitian background)
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich (Native American—specifically Ojibwe—background)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Pakistani background), and
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Japanese background); currently reading
Not only are these authors of diverse background, but they use this in their novels, writing about characters that struggle with living in multicultural worlds or migrating to/from the States from/to countries with different cultures and beliefs.
Last week was also busy because it was the height of the hiring process at my job, meaning that I had to finish conducting second round interviews, attend a hiring meeting, ensure we could get the funding for their salaries, and make offers! Again, it was a lot of work, but I can hardly complain about managing the hiring process for a program, can I? I feel very lucky to be able to get so much working experience through my work with PBHA.
Honestly, I think the hardest thing about the past week was not even the class and work-related stress, but the weather. Have you heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder? I don’t want to say that I actually have that, but I definitely think my mood is affected by the weather. The third Nor’easter in two weeks is hitting the Greater Boston Area tonight, and I can’t stop thinking about Spring. I cannot wait for warmer weather, thinner clothing, and fewer layers!