Grad student types.
I know obsessers and slackers, but not any how-does-he-do-its, at least not in my cohort. I'm not sure where I fit ... doing yoga is a hallmark of I-wanna-be-like-thats, but I don't speak at cool conferences, alas. (Somehow, I don't think doing yoga is the most important characteristic in the description!)
It's been interesting over the past two years watching my fellow students try to live up to the expectations and ideals of graduate life. The Perfect Grad Student would write every paper with her dissertation in mind, begin presenting at the main conference in her field no later than her second year, and have co-authored papers at least under review if not accepted (with revisions) at a decent journal by now. I am not there, for sure. Perhaps this is an excuse, but I'm just not that linear and sequential, or that obsessive about one topic. I feel as if for the past two years I have been soaking up a lot of things, learning like one rides a bike - there are some failures involved where one falls down. That is, I try an approach for a paper that doesn't work; it gets me a fine grade, but it doesn't have a life beyond that. Only now am I beginning to feel like, hey, I've marinated enough, so let's do some cooking.
(Sorry about the horrible mixed metaphors today!)
2 comments:
I should continue to flesh these types out as people give more feedback. I maintain my slacker status as I've spent 15 minutes on teaching stuff tonight, whereas I spent about an hour trying to find out how I can use a gamepad to play Nintendo emulator games on my laptop.
Is your user name from that catfood... I can't remember the brand, but they have Grammy's Pot Pie and all kinds of stuff?
I've never had cats, so I don't know much about cat food. There may be one called turducken. The name comes from a Cajun dish - a turkey, chicken, and duck, all stuffed inside of each other.
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