I said I'd come back around and I meant it...
A not-so boring day today, as I slog through a mound of things-yet-to-cover. The mound seems "insur-mound-able," even though I know it's not. What gives? Normally a busy day wouldn't bother (or even stir) me, but there's a difference -- I feel this frantic tapping on my shoulder, saying "How are you going to pay for school? How will you live? Shouldn't you do laundry?" Oh...hi, Mom.
School. Just thinking about it sends me into little spells. I love school -- I love the academy, I love sitting in class, taking notes, asking questions, cutting down other students -- in short, I love the whole package. And it's been a long four years since I've been there.
And I'm good at school. Oh, maybe not in the traditional "grades" sense of the word, but I get a lot out of it and I know my stuff. Problem is, if something eludes my mental grasp (see: math, all types except geometry), I simultaneously lose interest and get frustrated, and then...poof! A C- or D+ appears on my transcripts. Hell, even the dreaded...well, you know what the worst grade is. Let's just say I've received one or two in my otherwise august academic career.
Not worried about the aforementioned "losing interest" bit in grad school, however; I love history and won't have to take anything but. But something else is weighing on me here -- the logisitics of graduate school.
Undergrad? Meh. Mom and Dad took care of that -- not too say they paid for all of it (they did foot a majority-sized chunk of the bill, though), but Mom is great with details and set it all up. All I had to do was go to class, work my ten hours a week at the Student Union (until I was let go junior year -- seems they were downsizing the number of thieves they kept on their payroll) or the school paper, and that was that. Rest of time devoted solely to self-centered pursuits. I worry about those loans now, but not at the time.
But this time, M and D, God love 'em, aren't helping (not that I would dream of asking), and so it's all on my shoulders. And I'm nervous. Got some financial help from the ol' history department (TA Blue! Whoo!), but living and the rest of tuition is up to me.
Basically, here's my plea: if anyone in the LA area knows of media jobs or the like, let me know. If anyone knows how to find out the addresses, names, and numbers of any newspaper's LA bureau, let me know. Ditto TV news channels, magazines, anything.
I'd sure appreciate any help that comes this way.