Some grad school lessons thus far

Soooo I began graduate school a few weeks ago. Which (in addition to reacquainting myself with my college beer/pizza belly, being constantly disheveled, and having scarily ginormous bags under my eyes) makes me an expert on graduate students.

I've already gleaned some notable observations/lessons beyond the "Do everything with Confidence" and the whole graduate students are suckers for all things free point (I saw people in the lobby fighting over brown key lanyards being distributed by our Health Services office yesterday ... really guys?).

1) Forget parents, depressing headlines, hypochondriac reactions to mosquito bites, scary neighborhood German Shepards, etc. The real fear mongering, stress-inducing scourge in my life right now is... my peers. When it comes to ongoing academic pressure and the looming, far-off-but-kinda-close need to find a summer internship, graduate students totally freak each other out. It's not Career Services that worries you, or your professors, or reading that nine zillionth article about how bad job prospects are these days.... it's just overhearing a classmate state that they are tidying up their resume a bit, have obtained a study guide from the T.A., or are getting their business cards printed and then suddenly everyone goes in to frantic panic mode a la "Whatdoyoumeanwhyareyoudoingthat?!" or "SHOULD I BE DOING THAT? [GASP]." You think you study enough and feel comfortable with your problem set and then you hear that nice boy who happens to tape record all the lectures with a contraption that looks like it belongs on a 1970s space shuttle (seriously someone does that) say he was in the library "ALL WEEKEND" or see that one girl's color coordinated note cards with hand drawn pictures to denote every macro graph known to man kind and you become certain that you haven't done enough. Compared to the working world, the standard you hold yourself to in grad school is a bizarre hybrid of one upmansship vis-a-vis your classmates and assuming someone always knows something you don't.

2) Everyone bitches a lot. I can't tell yet if it's therapeutic or detrimental but it's certainly a bonding mechanism.

3) Students all seem to have those super thin macs. Me writing out my notes on legal pads stolen from my old job makes me a big time cave man/loser.

4) You experience a dramatic increase in caffeine and alcohol intake and can always excuse it by relating it to "networking." e.g. I have to haughtily down my 3rd pricey cappuccino of the day because someone who used to know someone who used to work somewhere I might want to work some day wants to meet for coffee. OR despite this intimidating pile of syllabi, I need to head out and try margaritas at that new Mexican place with all my new best friends because I just can't miss out on making connections during the first week.

[In relation, earlier I ran into a classmate who casually mentions she had a few Irish coffees this morning in order to successfully pass her Indonesian proficiency exam. She passed with flying colors.]

4) After working life with its pretty certain routines, this new daily schedule feels tremendously bizarre. In one day, I'll have class 8-10 am and then again 6-9 pm and in between about 79 hours of reading and three events with speakers. Unfortunately, this these-hours-already-don't-fit-into-a-24-hour-day schedule is hampered by the fact that I spend a lot of time in the computer lab attempting to copy/print readings from the reserves and then apologizing to everyone there when I jam the industrial printer with Fukuyama musings.

7) You drop things due to your new financial restrictions. My strategy has been the ever so obvious, eliminating things I can do myself (e.g. manis) and the things I already have one of (sadly this fall I will no longer will buy flats for every shade of the brown scale). Unfortunately, judging by the glasses I bought last week, I'm still not very good at being thrifty.

8) Within 2 days, everyone seems to know 3 things about everyone else in the program - A) where they live in the city B) what concentration they are and [thus associating them with stereotypes about that concentration] and C) are they single and/or in a failing relationship and likely soon to be single.

9) Rocco makes it hard to get anything done...