Week Eight, in which the intern debates switching things up a bit.

    Time, expediency, schedules...three things I am quickly running out of as the summer session winds its way down. Some of my interviewees will not go on tape. I did not schedule things well enough in advance on others. But all is not lost. I have back up. See, I am not new to the oral interview rodeo. I know that reluctance or scheduling conflicts happen. Therefore I put a back up plan in place. Let's hope that doesn't fall through. Otherwise its fly by the seat of my pants time.
     I did send in the first segment. It was received well with minor technical issues which I will fix and resubmit. All part of the learning curve. Again not everything is going according to plan but seriously, did I think it would? All the best laid plans yadda yadda yadda.... What I turn in will be of course, on par with what I originally planned, but I have to think of those three topics that I placed at the beginning of this blog. I am dedicating three to four days a week on this. I am getting my "Stuff" together. I am going to get it done. Am I saying this to reassure, and if I am reassuring whom? Hopefully all involved. As they say in the vernacular "the proof is in the pudding" or "put up or shut up".
     Oh and did I mention that I have not one, but two historiographical essays due? Ah yes, the fun of being a grad student. The ubiquitous historiographical essay. They say, and we all know who they are, these essays are the backbone of graduate work. They are. These essays are also a proverbial time killer whereby they eat copious amounts of time in preparation. Reading, analyzing, notes, rough drafts, final drafts... more reading, more note taking, until you get to the point and say to yourself "OK enough, it needs only to be fifteen pages not fifty." Careful scheduling is needed here and I am a bit anxious (a-hah! an understatement) about getting it all done. Let me just say that it is difficult to write essays and conduct interviews clinging to the ceiling. Loud noises and life's little dramas send me right up into the rafters at this point in the game. Yet all is not bad. Somehow I have this sick ability to use anxiety as a great motivator. Sort of a "flight or fight" response. Thank you amygdala! So I will get all the necessary tasks completed and they will all be executed in the high standards that I place upon myself. This is the sort of mantra that I repeat to myself over and over again in an effort to un-cling myself off of the ceiling at night. Grad students understand. Anyone that has gone through this process understands. I just need to lay off the caffeine.