The following excerpts were written one afternoon as I rushed to accomplish a day’s work-life-school balance. I hope that they offer you some perspective on a frenetic day’s goings-on for a Columbia College Chicago graduate student. Enjoy!

“You’re gonna make it after all!” Image credit: https://thewomenofchange.com/

Thursday, March 23, 2017

12:50 PM

Spring Break is upon us! And contrary to the images of white sand beaches and cerulean waters your mind may be conjuring up, I am actually writing this entry to you from a bus stop bench in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, on my way to an appointment in Roscoe Village, before a call with a newly admitted student and the trek back home (to Lakeview) to continue preparing my materials for the rapidly approaching Spring MFA critiques.

1:00 PM

I’m writing to you now from the bus, again en route to my personal task while performing my Graduate Ambassador writing duties, and yet–frantic as it may seem-I acknowledge that this is a relatively quotidian experience for Columbia College Chicago graduate students and, what’s more, Chicagoans in general. Public transportation and the wait for it offers unique, liminal spaces of unexpected productivity to us graduate students and the people of Chicago at large.

1:27 PM

Having breezed through my appointment, I write now from a second bus stop, awaiting the ride home to make it back in time for my Skype call. On the walk here, I thought about something someone told me not too long ago: that once you reenter the “normal” world, you’ll marvel at the time management feats you accomplished in grad school.

1:36 PM

On board a second bus, to my final destination, but one serving multiple purposes today: home. Again, as unnoticed as these pockets of time may otherwise be, in graduate school I’ve truly come to appreciate them. In the moment, they seem unspectacular–given that they’re almost a necessity–but even being as little removed as a few hours from when they occurred, you start to feel an overwhelming sense of self-fulfillment.

Toggling between Google Maps, the mobile-friendly version of our blog site, and periodically looking up for stops, even now I’m feeling pretty affirmed about my capabilities in all aspects of life. If you can do this form of time sorcery, it reassures you that you will make it through everything else just splendidly.

2:11 PM

I arrive home and scramble to get situated before my call, shortly to realize something’s come up and we’ll need to reschedule. But it’s no matter, as the kind of juggling I’ve done up until this point has now given me a boost of unflappable confidence. With the time that I saved in writing this blog entry during my accumulated transitional moments, I now comfortably have a new, unanticipated window of opportunity during which I can continue to prepare for my upcoming critique.

Further still, the day’s activities now serve to inform my creative work, giving me a moment of pause to consider how our very common, everyday experiences can be a part of our artistic exploration.

Until the next mad dash!