finally an update
Everyone seems too busy to post, so I thought I'd pick up the slack (being the biggest slacker in our group).
I've been lab-ing it up for the last could of months. I've developing some molecular markers so I can determine when a female (salamander) is promiscuous who the father will likely be and how the female's reproductive tract could determine this. Being in the lab hasn't been as dreadful as I thought it would be because I bring in music and play it loudly. You can shake your samples really well when you are dancing around.
I've also been spending a lot of time on my teaching (as per usual). This term I've really been obsessing about it because I post my powerpoints for other TAs to use. This means that I have to make sure every detail is as close to perfect as I can make it. The other day, I spent an hour on a single slide. Ridiculous! And least it's fun though!
My advisor actually came in and evaluated my teaching one day this term. Of course it was the day that one of my group activities failed completely and utterly! The funny thing was that she said she didn't even realize it hadn't gone the way I wanted. Evidently, I had good recovery. So, this experience was cool 'cause my advisor said she thought I had my teaching skill set down (score!), but that meant that she wants me to concentrate on my research now instead =(. So, next year I'm only going to teach one term instead of 3. This is good, of course, but sort of sad.
In other news, I have signed up for counseling. I've had one too many moments of anxiety in social settings, so I'm going to get a counselor to suggest some exercises for me to do to stay calm. My biggest worry is that she is going to unearth some dark horrible personality trait that will give me new anxiety once I know I have it. Note how I'm more than capable of working myself up about counseling. This is going to go really well, I think.
Yay for fun!
Yaay Sarah for being brave enough to ask for help! No worries I think you'll have fun with it and it will give you even more new fun things to obsess about. I learned alot during my time in "the chair" and while I may slip back into bad habits every once in a while, now at least (even if belatedly) I can recognize when I am doing this. I found it a good experience and very helpful for me. In fact I was sorta sad when she said well I think we don't need to meet anymore....but but I want to talk more about ME wonderful me all about MEEEEEEE! :) Let me know if you have any questions are concerns. This would of course involve you PICKING up the phone and CALLING me. ahem you knew I'd work in a guilt trip somewhere into this post. ;p
I hope counseling is successful for you, sarah! I found my time very helpful even though I didn't stick it out. I often consider trying again, but I keep on working on things myself. I will try to blog soon!
I really like your article, I support your point of view
