Wow. It’s been an intense year.
When I first started applying to grad schools, I was completely in the dark. All I knew was that I loved English literature and that I wanted the opportunity to properly study it. I always felt that my undergrad courses had been a joke (well, all but a few) because a) undergrad in Korea is ridiculously easy to compensate for the hell we go through in high school, and b) in Korea, English literature is always studied from the perspective of a foreign language - which it wasn’t, to me. I aced my literature courses mostly because I was fluent in English. I also wanted to get the hell out of Korea - my family moved there when I was 13, and while I grew to have a kind of grudging affection for the place I always felt like an outsider. I knew that a student visa was probably the easiest way for me to start settling down in the US. After that, all I would need was an American husband. 
I ended up in the MA in Humanities program here at UChicago mostly because this was the only program I’d been accepted to. I had no idea how competitive graduate programs in the US were; I’d originally applied to the PhD program at UChicago, but they recommended me for the MA program because I lacked research experience. And it was a good thing they did, because once I got here I realized that grad school is no joke. The amount of work they expected us to do for one course was almost as much as I was used to doing for an entire semester of undergrad. I was also enourmously intimidated by my peers - not necessarily because they were smarter than me (although many of them are) but because they had the advantage of a “proper” undergrad education in the US, which covered a hell of a lot more material than I’d learned in Korea. I was a pretty studious student in undergrad - did a lot of extra reading for my classes in addition to what was required - but here, I felt woefully inadequate. My first quarter here gave me serious doubts as to whether I wanted to continue on as a scholar, or find something else to do while it wasn’t too late. Even now, I’m stil dithering, but I have realized that I really do like academia, despite the fact that it’s more of a lifestyle than an occupation. I think I’d be happy doing this for the rest of my life.
Our program is unique in that it compresses into 1 year what normally takes 2. In most MA programs you do a year of coursework and then a year of thesis work. For us, we wrote our theses while doing coursework. It’s a very tight program, which starts two weeks before the actual school year, and they have numerous deadlines for each step of the thesis writing process. That helped a lot. Plus, you end up becoming very close with the other people in your program, in the way that people who go through extreme situations tend to bond quickly over their shared experiences.
Of course, such situations breed plenty of scandal as well. Of which I have had more than my share of involvement. Scottish Darling and I are a rumored lesbian couple. We find this very amusing and take every possibly opportunity to encourage this rumor. 
Apparently it’s even been a subject of gossip among the office staff. I had no idea how seriously people were taking this until a secret admirer of Scottish Darling’s asked me point-blank if we were dating. Funnily enough, my whole thing with That Guy was less well-known, although by now most of the people in our social circle are aware to varying degrees of what’s happened. Although after the boat party last night, I think more tongues have been sent wagging (we kissed on the upper deck, standing on the dance floor, and apparently a few of our mutual friends were questioned about what the hell was going on between us). Ah, well. Graduation is only a week away.
I’ve made several close friends, but two stand out. Scottish Darling is one, of course. We initially did not know each other very well. Both of us are quite shy, but we deal with in opposite ways - I tend to stay silent, while she tends to chatter incessantly. As a result I thought she was annoying and she thought I was pretentious. It wasn’t until at least a couple months into the program that we actually started hanging out together. I don’t know what this year would have been like without her. We spend so much time together, we might as well be dating.
That Guy is the other. In hindsight, not a good choice, it seems. I really don’t know what attracted me to him initially, but we had a spark, for the lack of a better word. A spark that’s kind of gotten out of control. If I had to cite my greatest mistake this year, it would be him. My feelings for him, whatever they are, have overridden my good sense so many times this year, and even yesterday I ended up going home with him instead of staying with my other friends. Scottish Darling was furious at the fact that I decided to let this jerk (in her eyes) be so important to me after he’d treated me basically like dirt. (We’ve just had a cry together. And ate chocolate.) She wants to know what exactly I see in him. I don’t know. I wish I did. The best way this can end is for me to come to my senses and learn my lesson from this torturous ordeal.
So it’s been an eventful nine months. It seems like only yesterday that we were sitting awkwardly at our welcoming dinner party, looking around and feeling lost. I met none of my future close friends at that first event - it wasn’t until at least the second to third week that I started talking to the people I’d end up bonding with the most. It’s amazing how close we’ve grown over the past year. And how quickly it’s all gone by. I welcome a respite from papers and research, but I dread the thought of closing another chapter in my life. People you’ve grown to love have to leave, and we all have to figure out what we’re going to do with our lives. And this year will soon be a distant memory. But hopefully we’ve all grown a little, learned a little, lived a little.
But during my first term, when I asked to be allowed to take the three 40X courses available, the Korean guy had made the same request. So we were warned that it was a huge lot of work and if we flunked any of the courses we’d be in probation, we said yeah yeah, they let us do it. And we got three As each… so the Uni went and changed the program.
////// (That’s me clapping.) Great job, haze! My neice is getting ready to start her Master’s program. The Princess[sup]TM[/sup] isn’t interested. She’s sick of school. Anyway, she’s fast-tracking with her new job at FDLE. Ahem! Back on track. Anyhoo, you deserved major kudos!