I expected when I started this blog that I would talk about life as a graduate student. Yet here I am two years later and I think I hardly spoke about it even in passing. Now it's all over. I can breathe a sigh of relief; I somehow managed to fool everyone.
Eventually I plan to do a post about tips for surviving graduate school, but first I have to think about what those tips might be. At the moment I feel like the overlooked average kid. The one that doesn't stand out, doesn't need extra help, just goes where they know they're supposed to and makes it through to summer vacation hardly scathed. I also know this is sarcastic humility, and I am very sure there are some things I did exceedingly well, and some things I would go back and do differently. But that's not what I'm going to talk about here.
I'm going to talk about my newfound freedom in working! I guess I need to start by saying that I have too many lucky stars to count. I'm barely two weeks outside of my degree and I'm already working in publishing, a field I've always wanted to be a part of. I am rediculously lucky to join Todd Anderson at Henday Publishing as the managing editor. Together, we intend on creating community development, social economics, and education material with an interdisciplinary approach, a keen interest in technology, and an open mind for new material and methods. I am not so bold as to say we are the new face of academic publishing, but I am bold enough to say that we are pretty darned determined to carve out a space for ourselves in this strange uncertain and ever-changing market. Stay tuned and keep your eyes out for Henday Publishing.
In addition to my work as an editor, I am also thrilled to start a long-overdue artistic partnership with my dear friend Dusty Hagerud. Dusty is ony of my oldest friends, and he has been a designer/illustrator for as long as I have known him. I am a huge fan of his work and his sense of humor, and we have a number of plans in the works. Stay tuned for loads of hilarious, irreverant tales of myth, mischief, and marionettes.
Finally, after all the time I have spent working on courses, school deadlines, and that big old monster I called a thesis, I can't wait to get going on my portfolio. The first thing I'm going to do is put that thesis in a drawer for a few months and not think about it. Next I'm going to free-write to my heart's content and enjoy every indulgent moment of it. Then I'm going to do what any recently graduated, aspiring writer would do—pimp myself to anyone who will listen and brag like crazy when someone puts my work into print.
So, this is unfortunately one of those self-satisfying diary-esque blogs that doesn't serve much other than to promise awesome things to come. Hopefully I've done enough already that you are intrigued enough to believe me. Exciting things are certainly to come.
