October Song

I have titled this blog as that of an Amy Winehouse song. The song tells of a bird flying away, reaching a sanctuary, and transforming through this rebirth. I envision this blog as an account of the transformations I will experience, and every student experiences, during a new school year. It is my first blog of fourth year, and I believe we all undergo types of rebirth between semesters. We are reborn when we begin the school year, and we are reborn daily throughout it. It is also a fitting title because October has just begun.

My sanctuary (forgive the metaphor) which I am currently determined to reach is that elusive endpoint of grad school. As a result, October brings me another week closer to the paramount month of this semester: December.

December has always been a busy month for university students. But, December in fourth year? When you are planning to apply for grad school, the prospect of December entails an entirely new frontier of juggling and planning. December is the month when applications are submitted and futures become hinged on answers that will remain unknown until March. December also seems a distant mirage, since I am eager for its arrival while knowing I will never fully be ready for it no matter when it comes along.

I will be recommending tips for surviving the process of grad school applications (which begins long before the start of the school year in which you are applying) throughout this blog. For today, let me provide one fundamental guideline: be obsessed. In order to achieve this, you must have a one track mind. You must be so obsessed and fascinated with the prospect of becoming accepted, that you are willing to bend any which way that this path demands of you, and are unwilling to bend any way which distracts you from what you ultimately want. It is possible! You need only be determined, and you will find that the process can begin successfully before a single application has even been submitted.