This has been by far one of the most interesting, surprising years of excitement in my life and it's only going to get crazier! So at the request of several of my friends, I'm going to keep a blog of my journey. Hopefully I don't suck at blog writing - but I've never tried it nor have I ever really followed anyone else's blog - so it could be a complete disaster. With the disclaimer out of the way let me fill in some background....
I am the first one in my family to attempt college (I just graduated with a BA in History and a BA in English May 15th!!!) - and about a 1 1/2 ago I decided that I was going to go all the way and earn my PhD. This was a really scary decision for me because I had no idea if I could compete to get into good schools. And even if I got in - I didn't know if they would give me funding. Without funding there was no way that I could afford to go. But I decided to go for it and this spring it paid off. I was accepted into 11 graduate programs, 9 of which gave me full scholarships plus living stipends. Starting in January I was getting emails, letters, and phone calls from top programs all over the country and they were recruiting ME! I spent the better part of two months traveling around the country and on phone calls with some of the greatest scholars in my field (which is late medieval/early modern gender history if you were wondering). It was like my very own Cinderella story (thankfully without the glass slippers and awkward ball gown). It even ended with a very teary graduation and Channel 8 news doing a story about me just a couple weeks ago (talk about unreal! Here's a link to the WFAA News Story!)
Finally I decided on Washington University in St. Louis, where I will be funded for 8 years, and I will be studying with Dr. Daniel Bornstein. I won their Chancellor's Fellowship, which includes an unheard of living stipend and a great community of Fellows. I couldn't be more excited to move to St. Louis and start the next chapter of my life. And that brings us to my current situation - which includes a couple huge problems to get past this summer:
1. I can't actually afford to move and the money doesn't start until the end of August
2. I own my place and need to figure out what the hell I'm doing with it
I'm sure in retrospect they will seem like minor problems, but at the moment they are terrifying (doesn't being broke blow?). Anyway stay tuned - I'll be checking in throughout the summer to update everyone.
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