To My Students From Last Year

Just wanted to wish everyone good luck with sophomore year. My sophomore year, for reasons good and bad, was probably the most significant year of my life. It was the year that for me, marked the real turning point between being a kid and a young adult. I wish you all the best on the journey.

If you're going to South County, good luck with being at a new school. I hope things run smoothly for you.

If you're still at Hayfield, you are lucky. You have a lot of really good and committed teachers who want to be at the school to work with you. Let me know in the comments or IM who your World II teacher is. And if you play a sport, make sure to kick a little South County butt for me.

Have fun and keep in touch.

Back to School

So tomorrow is my first day of class as a graduate student.

I had orientation last week. The general Grad School orientation was pretty useless, but my department's orientation got me really excited. The African-American studies professors all seemed very down to earth and eager to teach - a far cry from many of the professors I had at Brown. I'm really looking forward to working with them.

My fellows students also seemed great. There are 10 of us starting the program this fall. Everyone seemed to be very intelligent and passionate about being there. I can tell they have a lot to offer. One of the other students taught elementary school, and there is another who wants to get a job writing history curriculum after the program. And I have to admit, I was somewhat relieved to not be the only white person in the program (there is 1 other).

As of now I'm signed up for 19 credits, which sounds like a little too much but there are just too many good sounding classes and not enough time. But as of now my course load is:

• African-American Studies Research and Writing (Tuesdays)
• Writing Black New York (Tuesdays)
• Comparative Literature of the African Diaspora (Monday and Wednesday)
• Race and the Articulation of the Difference (Thursday)
• Seminar is African-American History: 1945-Present (Thursday)

As excited as I am to start class, I'm definitely missing the anticipation of the first day from the teacher's POV. Last night I ended up out with a woman who is starting her first teaching job this week. I felt pretty envious. Oh well....next year.