It’s been awhile. School and life got in the way of blogging. I suppose that’s okay. So what’s been going on…I completed the semester! I’ve gotten two of 3 grades back, and the longer I wait for the third the more I begin to doubt myself on my final project. My cat is finally better. She was hospitalized two days before my 30th birthday with fatty liver disease and nearly died. She got her feeding tube out on Monday after have 2 more scares. Sick cat plus finals did not equal an easy end of semester.
Her illness has made it more clear to me how hard it is for me to ask for help from (all but a few) people. I seem to believe not only that I have to do everything myself but that this is the way things should be. Going into next year, I am going to focus on being realistic about what help I need and work on asking those in my life for that help.
On a positive note, I was accepted to the Nepal IFP in my program! I will be spending next summer there (if you need a summer sublet in Brooklyn, please reach out to me) as well as traveling to India. I’m hoping to do research around women’s political empowerment or about the cultural-specific foundations of feminism. I’m really interested in this idea of how feminism is part of culture, including my own. One of the biggest questions I am asking myself leaving the semester is: how does a privileged culture recognize itself when it goes to work in another culture? Hopefully I will have time to muddle my way through some of this question and examine my own culturally-based feminism here.
To all who read, thank you. I hope you are ending your year positively and looking forward to the next one.
creating carrie 
You inspire me to look into grad school. It might still be a few years off (especially if a house comes into play, or those silly things called children, yikes!). Glad Maggie is doing well and it was wonderful, as always, to see you at Christmas.
Woot! Education? What do you want to do down the road?
I still see myself in in the classroom, but if I were to leave it I would want to be an instructional specialist. They work with specific content teachers on a campus (or at a district level depending on the district) to help them with any issues they have, they’re work as a mediator with administration, and help with extra programs on campus for supporting struggling students. I would of course need many more years of my own classroom experience to be able to do those things well.
I also do not know how I would do it not online. I recognize my learning style as needing to have that constant connection with other learners. My one online class in college was one of my least favorite. I recognize in todays world, I will probably have to do at least some online classes though.
As an alternative to a masters, or in addition to it, there is a program for being nationally board certified and in many districts, there is a larger stipend than for a masters. I went to a session on it last summer, but you have to have completed 3 years of teaching first, and in my district 5 years. It essentially holds you accountable to the extreme for all the best teaching practices that sadly we let slip through our fingers from lack of time or exhaustion.
Needless to say the next couple of years hold many academic (Kurtis also wants a masters), home, and family decisions. I just have to remind my self that things will happen in God’s timing and not to rush things.