Last First Day....

...at a new school.

First things first, I dutifully went to the doctor like a logical person. We talked about my wrist and she recommended me for physical therapy, so that's going to happen, I think. We talked about my panic attack/hypoglycemia/gluten allergy and she suggested I try switching the order in which I take my medications. So that's going to happen, I think.

I checked my mail for the first time and was rewarded with a postcard from Otter Camp Jessica and a copy of the New Yorker left from the last tenant. Win, win. Getting the postcard reminded me that one of the good things about living far away from people you care about is the mail. So please send me mail. You know, if you want to.

Fast forward a few hours to my first Ph.D. class ever. As is to be expected, I got lost and was a little late to class. But I was as lost and as late as several other people, so it turned out to be okay. This class was a seminar for all the people in my sub-discipline, Learning Sciences and Technology Design. We have to take it for nine quarters (I learned today), so there are a mix of first, second, and third years in the class. I half really enjoyed it and half wanted to throw up when I started thinking about the future and how long this might take. The professor reminded me of Dr. Skelly - nice, and funny, but no-nonsense. I like that, perhaps that's because that's what my academic personality is like also. Academic Me is nice about things, but don't bullshit me. Seriously. I know what I'm doing. Like today, when the professor asked if any of the first years wanted to introduce themselves. I volunteered to go first and started by saying, "When I was 16, I decided that I wanted to be a zoo director." Some people laughed. So then I said, "Oh, you can laugh, but it's a very real goal." And then went on to describe my research interests, blahblahblah. It seemed to be a good first impression because no one on the elevator after class wanted to talk to me. Deep sigh. And I even left out the Y-bomb.

But that was it, my first class. It was only an hour. I have no idea what the class will entail because there is no syllabus and no homework. Tomorrow is my all-first-year-doc-students seminar, which I'm pretty excited for. And my first yoga class. So that's good.

But I effing miss F&ES. So much that I've started looking at plane tickets. I can't stop thinking about all my friends there and how within a few days I felt like I had tons of amazing people in my life. Owen and I talked on the phone last night for a long time and it was insane to hear his voice. So happy and exciting but also so sad and missing. I keep looking at my phone and wanting to call people but I keep stopping myself because I don't want to be the first one to be missing.

Enough, though. Day one, year one, down. Keep calm, and carry on.