The last time I saw Torii Hunter in center field in Angels Stadium, he was wearing a Twins uniform. Tonight, there he was, dressed all in red and white. I went to my first Angels game this season; we played the Blue Jays, and we lost- badly. Nevertheless, my friend and I had a great time.
We have 2 more weeks until it is officially summer, so I am staying focused and powering through to the end. I have 2 research designs to write, a stats final, a short stats research paper, and the ever-looming qualifying paper on my agenda for the rest of the quarter. Today was a good day- one of my friends taught me an advanced stats technique that will be useful for my qualifier, and we had a guacamole face-off in the Race/Ethnicity/Gender work group meeting. LD and I squared off, and damn, he makes a mean guacamole. Next up? A bake off with MP in the fall.
Yesterday, one of my friends shared an important piece of advice. See, our department is fairly uncompetitive- we don't compete for funding, we help each other out, and we have a great community. Yet, there is still this subtle element of competitiveness- nobody wants to feel left behind, and because we interact with other and can follow each other's progress, it is easy to start comparing ourselves. My friend reminded me that when we go on the job market, we aren't competing with each other. We're competing with other grad students in our fields at other schools. We're competing with people that we don't even know, don't interact with, and can't even see. So, I'm taking this advice to heart, and reminding myself that I'm competing with some person who studies Women and Politics at some other institution. That is my true competitor, not the peers around me.
We have 2 more weeks until it is officially summer, so I am staying focused and powering through to the end. I have 2 research designs to write, a stats final, a short stats research paper, and the ever-looming qualifying paper on my agenda for the rest of the quarter. Today was a good day- one of my friends taught me an advanced stats technique that will be useful for my qualifier, and we had a guacamole face-off in the Race/Ethnicity/Gender work group meeting. LD and I squared off, and damn, he makes a mean guacamole. Next up? A bake off with MP in the fall.
Yesterday, one of my friends shared an important piece of advice. See, our department is fairly uncompetitive- we don't compete for funding, we help each other out, and we have a great community. Yet, there is still this subtle element of competitiveness- nobody wants to feel left behind, and because we interact with other and can follow each other's progress, it is easy to start comparing ourselves. My friend reminded me that when we go on the job market, we aren't competing with each other. We're competing with other grad students in our fields at other schools. We're competing with people that we don't even know, don't interact with, and can't even see. So, I'm taking this advice to heart, and reminding myself that I'm competing with some person who studies Women and Politics at some other institution. That is my true competitor, not the peers around me.
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