As the calendar inched closer to the ides of October, I
found the semester grind having its (usual) effects. I am in my last year of
coursework, and while I love learning, the seminars I am currently enrolled in
are more labor intensive than I imagined. The annual meeting of the Southern
Historical Association (this year in St. Louis), usually marks the first major
break during fall semester, but seems far off.
Being a graduate student often presents a lonely existence;
weekly – if not daily – reminders about your current course load, or perhaps
the looming spectre of the dissertation prove hard to ignore. Even if you
maintain a schedule that allows for minor breaks within the week, the
responsibilities of the semester eventually catch up. In short, sometimes you
need more of a jolt than simply another
cup of coffee. My solution: heading to a conference! Luckily, there was
conference (relatively) close at Ole Miss. So I rounded up some other grad
students, hopped in a car, and road tripped to Oxford.
