Nothing to lose, everything to gain

I had my first class as a graduate student yesterday! As I expected, I enjoyed it a lot and found the material to be intellectually stimulating (a good sign!). The atmosphere is so different from my undergraduate life. First, there are about 25 students in my class as compared to RU's average 50 - 200. Second, the student age ranges from 22 - 45 as compared to 18 - 22. Lastly, the campus is so small that all my classes ended up in one building, a mere 5 - 10 minute walk from the commuter lots as compared to my travels via RU buses & getting lost in search of classrooms in building basements. It's a lot of change to get used to, but so far it seems promising and inviting.

I was able to study for about 2 hours today (and am planning to do some more reading tonight). After accepting my admittance to the program earlier this year, I anticipated my newfound motivation and appreciation of the opportunity to learn and be a Masters student, yet I didn't realize exactly how MUCH I would love and appreciate it. I guess when you go from having no direction in life, it feels nice to finally have a concrete/more stable goal to work towards.

I'm excited to go to my other two classes next week! I'm sure the course load will become increasingly harder and deadlines will begin to approach quickly, but I'm really ready for it and eager to achieve success.

I'll have to also re-learn how to balance my personal interests with that of being a student again, but I'm sure I can manage. Plus, Charu is moving back home so at least I have a study buddy!

On another note: NFL football season starts tonight & I couldn't be more excited for that! Plans for the rest of the evening include: football watching, hot tea drinking, shower-taking, nail-painting & more reading!

Labor Day Weekend

I'm spending my labor day weekend at my south jersey house. My house has been invaded by 20+ of my dad's old HS friends that came here for a reunion. It is heartwarming how happy they are to see each other after so many years. I wonder if my HS friends and I will still be this close after so long...

If you know me well enough, you'll know I have slight claustrophobia, so downfall of this reunion is feeling overly crowded in my house. Thus, I was glad to hear my cousin and his gf were in AC for the evening! Went to the Bally's beach bar since it was a beautiful night with great weather. The majority of the crowd at the beach bar must've been 35 - 40+, and the cover band wasn't that wonderful. Either way, you can't go wrong with $4 sangrias & $5 specials. Being "adventurous" I decided to order a Jack & coke after my cousin did...after the first sip, I remembered why I stopped ordering them: 1) I don't even like coke 2) Jack Daniels, while not really making me drunk, makes my face reach that level of "asian glow" at turbo speed. I then proceeded to lose $20 at the slot machines with Jessika. I still love Atlantic City. Maybe I'll celebrate my quarter life bday there next February...

Speaking of birthdays, Jeremy's is fast approaching & I still haven't figured out everything I'm going to make/buy for the annual "week of presents". Any ideas?