My Goals Here

Just a quick blog introduction… 

I like to think I am an average graduate student.  I never feel like I know enough.  I secretly panic over why the professors-that-be let me into this program in the first place.  But I work hard, and I like to believe that, hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to be a professor.  Or at least have a doctorate diploma to hang on the wall of my cardboard box.

But I don’t have the diploma yet, and there are a lot of times I find myself looking for advice or at least other students’ experiences to draw from so I can prepare myself for what’s next for me.  I’ve learned that’s not always easy.  My program is very small, and I am the only one studying medieval Italian history.  Really, when I started, there were only two other students doing medieval history at all--one was only a year ahead of me and we became great friends, the other was getting ready to head to Spain for dissertation work.  Since then, we’ve added two new students in medieval history.  Slowly but surely, right?

And even if you do have the people in your program to ask, not everyone is willing to give a straight answer.  Sometimes, people are reluctant to admit their mistakes or that they were not prepared for everything grad school threw their way.  And trust me, sometimes, it throws a lot.  The reality is that there are a lot of people like that, no matter how big or small your program is.  It’s not all their fault.  A lot of times, the competition is forced onto them by the program.

Because of that, though, I decided to start this blog to help graduate students in history, especially Italian history, learn from my experiences--and my mistakes.  I am trying to present a non-biased, balanced view of the experiences I have had, the bad ones and the good ones, so people can form their own opinions.

This blog isn’t for everyone. 

Some people, who are wiser and more experienced than I am, might know all of this already and skip this blog entirely.  I know very little, but I’m a fast learner and I’m always willing to try something at least once.  I’m writing this blog as someone who can (usually) admit when she was wrong.  

That said, this blog has (will have) a lot of general fun facts about how absolutely delightful (and not) grad school can be, but a lot of the time, I’ll mention programs and experiences relevant to medieval historians because that’s what I am and that’s what I know.

I also know that many people will never read this blog regularly, or at all--really, that’s not want it’s for.  What I do hope for is that it will pop up in a google search when someone really DOES need this information, and I sincerely hope that it will help them out.

So, until tomorrow...arrivederci!