13 May, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I’m really buried under an avalanche right now.  Last term, my university told me I wouldn’t need to do any end-of-term grading.  Because I wanted some sort of British income during these couple months, I took a part-time teaching job at the language school, which I’ve already admitted was a huge mistake.  Now, in the department of To Make Matters Worse, my university has decided they need my services after all, which really annoys me because I never would have taken the teaching job if I’d known they were going to give me work.  Not only have they given me work, they’ve given me twice as much as I would normally have.

So now I have four jobs, essentially.  I work at the hall of residence; I still work for the American company, which requires me to do work online each day (and though people sometimes email to ask what this job is, I don’t want to discuss it with people I don’t know); I have the teaching job at the language school; and now….nearly 50 manuscripts to grade, which is going to take up any shred of free time I’m supposed to have.  I’m doing all the second-year creative writing marking, which is a huge responsibility.

On top of this, I am supposed to be leaving for NYC one month from today and need to pack all my things, find a place to store them and find someone to move the items into storage.

What gets lost in all of this is the PhD I’m supposed to be working on full-time, including the novel I am not working on because I don’t have the mental energy to focus on it, nor the time to devote to it.

I’m not sure how I always get myself into situations like this.  Many other PhD students I know, who don’t work at all and just live off their parents or loans, laugh at me and joke about how I must be on amphetamines or something. They also say I must be crazy to do all this on top of a PhD.

I just have to survive the next month with my sanity intact.  After this, all the jobs will fall away except for the American one.  Then I’ll have June through September to focus on my PhD.  But June seems so far away right now!  You know how toddlers sometimes just roll around on the ground, scream and kick their feet?  Sometimes I wish I were a toddler so I could do that.  Because that sums up how I feel right now.

1. Comments RSS

1. william Says:

   May 14th, 2009 at 2:16 am

   Sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now. Keep in mind that when you are in the States you will have all the time in the world to write and this will be a good opportunity to make up for lost time.

   Looking forward to seeing you soon!!!

2. Anglofille Says:

   May 14th, 2009 at 10:20 pm

   thanks w! xx