One step closer

Today I acquired a new major advisor. I had one for my English major, but I recently decided that I ought to declare a Creative Writing concentration. I've taken all of the necessary classes, and besides, I want to thesis in Creative Writing. My CW professor agrees that I should a) concentrate and b) thesis, so I already had some pretty decent backing.

English majors can ordinarily choose from any number of people (my first/current advisor is in the American Studies department) , but to concentrate in CW one must have a major advisor from the CW department (which is sort of a sub-department of English, so...). I'd have asked my professor, as she is both amazing and supportive of my endeavour, but this is (alas!) her last year. Instead, she sent me off to one of the other profs, whom I'd never met.

So away I went this afternoon to knock on the professor's door. Duly summoned in, I introduced myself and explained that we hadn't actually met (it's the first week of class, and she was giving me one of those careful "I should know your name but oh no I've forgotten" looks. Wow, I'm using a lot of parentheses.). We sat, and I told her that my request was rather unorthodox, then explained the whole "English-major-want-to-thesis-never-met-you-but-hi-need-an-advisor-please" thing. Only, yes, rather more coherently.

And - voila - I had a new advisor. Not officially - she needs to sign some forms - but she basically smiled and said "yes, great, here's what you need to know about proposing a thesis."

One Major Stressor taken care of. This is also the most important preliminary step towards the CW thesis.

Next Stressor: the person with whom I sort of but not quite have a a summer internship lined up is under the impression that I have taken courses in publishing. Now I must disillusion him and hope he will still take me as an intern.

Straying into the Real World

I am in the process of searching for a summer internship (in the hopes of being somewhat employable when I eventually graduate from college...). It's been a rather unorthodox search, I think - I emailed about a dozen Vancouver publishers to ask whether they were in the market for a summer intern. Four answers so far: two thanks-but-no-thanks, one with marginally more information (which amounts to "our interns are Masters students. Who do you, a pitiful college junior, think you are?"), one "hmm, that might work." Tonight I sat down to reply to the "hmm, that might work" company.

I hope applying for a job in the real world isn't this nerve-wracking. Oh, don't burst my bubble, please; I am enjoying thinking that a post-college job will materialize out of thin air with minimal effort and less stress.

...

Well, not really. I can usually delude myself into believing whatever I find necessary to believe, but sadly I am not quite that delusional.

At any rate, the email is sent and now I just have to worry about the publisher deciding that he doesn't want an intern after all. Oh, and I should probably put together a C.V. (a terrifying thought indeed), which means finding the Centre for Work and Service, which is... umm.... somewhere on campus. I hope.

Plan for tomorrow: get lost. Hopefully get un-lost in time to get help on my (thus far nonexistent) C.V.

Can't be bothered with introductions

Classes started today, and I - proof of my true Humanities dorkiness - have two English classes and two Women's Studies classes (last semester I had three English and one Women's Studies - my friends thought I was insane, but then, I almost added a fifth class, also English). Only three of the four classes today (though it amounts to five hours in class... and I have a couple hundred pages to read already. Go me), and I am so excited.

Yup, I'm a dork.

I love reading. I love writing. One of the English classes is on Austen and Trollope; we're reading six novels this semester. The other English class, which starts in an hour, is Creative Writing. As far as I'm concerned, the Creative Writing department is the best one here - I love my professors, I love my classes, I love my homework...

My but it is so clearly the beginning of the semester. Perhaps I will have regained some vestige of sanity after a few weeks of never-ending work. Nevertheless, I am so glad to be back to writing.

Note to self: sort out thesis for next year.