Out of retirement and I'm finding a groove.

Well, I've done it. I've officially completed my first week of college - back as a graduate student again.

Perks: Flexible time to get work done and still leave room for enjoyment, and enjoying more of my coworkers and being able to find time for myself in between.

Opportunities: (this is facilitation coaching code for 'stuff that's a little dicey/will need changing') Focus, and creative budgeting.

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In this week, and since my last post I have been able to sit in a lecture hall again, attend a football game, travel, hike the Mackenzie River trail and blue pool, join a gymnastics club, and enjoy the eccentricities of my office mates (Exhibit A).

Exhibit A

I have rediscovered the age old tradition of copious academic reading as I reenter this field. Over the past week, I have read more than I have done intentionally in the past 10 years; mostly small fonts in questionably photocopied text with strange new words like 'epistemology' and 'neo Newtonian Postmodernism'. But I do want to qualify this with the fact that it brings me a struggling satisfaction.

Historically, I grew up with reading comprehension issues that plagued me with every assignment. I'm not talking about dyslexic or attention deficit type comprehension issues, but more of an inconsistency in focus due to trailing thoughts from phrases in text that spark tangential memories and experiences or new ideas to emerge. I have recently discovered that there are two things that help me combat this:

#1: Listen to Pop and Hip Hop Power Workout Radio on Pandora REALLY loud with headphones.

#2: Write/highlight/draw/comment on EVERYHING not digital. Very few things are sacred; like my desk top, or anything covered in the Black and Orange or Beaver logos.

Exhibit B

Through those two keys, I can interact with my interests more - relative to text, and create more fluidly. More often, I find myself finger dancing on my keyboard and dancing to songs like "N***as in Paris" as I hammer out the synthesis of all new things I get to expose myself to through my coursework. It's artistic in a way, and totally against a norm referenced study/homework plan, but there's something amazing that happens for me when I drown out the world and brain dump to Kanye and JayZ.

I'm excited about the term - and the years to come - more now because of this past couple of weeks, and I'm happy that I get to share it with the people I do. I'm happy that I can look at my debit card again as well. Cheers to week two!

Go Beavs!