The State of Things: June 1, 2024

Comic - Panel 1 - An iPad screen shows a grade of 14 out of 15 points. Off-panel, Ellie yells, 'Whad'ya mean I'm missing one point?! What happened?' - Panel 2 - Ellie reads and scrolls, an intent expression on her face. - Panel 3 - She looks furiously to something off-panel while yelling, 'YOU!' - Panel 4 - She jabs a finger at an anthropomorphized APA manual that is sitting calmly and twiddling its thumbs. She yells, 'YOU DID THIS!'

I have met the foe of many grad school students: proper APA citation. Everything we reference and quote in our papers and discussion board posts must be cited. Even videos. Even photos. Even personal conversations. I’ve never seen so many quotation marks and parentheses in my life. It’s like someone took a canister of leftover punctuation marks and sprinkled them all over the place.

At least the other students in my course are having issues with correct citation, so I don’t feel too terrible. Of course, our instructor had to kindly remind us of the citation help readily available online, so I feel pretty dumb.

Despite what the comic implies, I wasn’t one of those “part of every club and afterschool activity, A+ in every class, honor roll, obsessing over every mark” pupils growing up. I was very average up until the last couple of years of high school, when I finally managed to claw my way into a respectable B+ range. In college, I graduated summa cum laude, which means dick all in the workforce, but helps a lot when you’re gunning for an advanced degree.

The point of all this rambling is that three weeks in, I think I have a grip on juggling all of my obligations. I’m confident that I can keep up with everything I care for going forward.

So it’s time to add another project or hobby to my daily lineup, because I can’t go a day without feeling like I’ve forgotten something from my bloated checklist. Maybe I should get back into gaming…