Reality hits. Ouch.

Nortwestern may be the only school with a more bizarre schedule than Furman. Here it is, nearly two months into the standard school year, and I just finished a week of classes today. Before I discuss any of that though, let me speak to things on the home front.

Pocky is doing great and gaining weight fast... Rachel and I indeed call her "Fatty" more than "Pocky" these days, weighing in at a whopping three pounds. Her barking through the night has completely ceased, now that I park her crate just beside the bed. We have gone from four hours of interrupted napping for the past two weeks to six or seven blessed hours of continuous rest for the past two nights. This is good since we were having to nap on Pocky's sporadic sleep schedule during the days, constantly fighting a battle against sore throats and coughs. Healthy and rested, Rachel is preparing herself for the GRE and fitting in housework whenever Pocky is not "eliminating" on the floors (the word "eliminating" is about the only thing I picked up from the dog-training manuals Rachel has forced me to peruse). I, as I mentioned earlier, am beginning my semester.

*** Note of caution: The following contains no mention of food, puppies, or me saying stupid things to strangers. Grab a cup of coffee and read at your own risk.***

An explanation of what I am doing up here: I am working toward a Ph.D. in Rhetoric in order to instruct at the university level. Why? In my mind, it's the best way to train future generations to become better citizens and leaders in civic life - able to communicate ideas clearly, question established beliefs, and make well-informed decisions. All of this in a time when this "civic virtue" seems to be disappearing at an alarming rate in America, the very nation which claims to be the bastion of representative democracy and civic republicanism. On a more practical level, this vocation, though not as financially rewarding as private-sector work, is a challenging career, with rewards such as publication and "tenure," travel, and student interaction. Plus, my father would want me to add that most universities provide health care programs.

The program at Northwestern combines a Masters and Ph.D. program into a comprehensive four to five year track, depending on the time needed for writing a dissertation. The program is the best in the country, and the financial package is attractive too (it almost covers rent in Evanston!). I have the regular breaks a student has, including summers, but it is expected that any free time will be used for research purposes. Between a thesis, dissertation, and constant publication deadlines, free time will be a rarity.

This semester I have three graduate-level seminars: Ideology, Hegemony, and Mediation with Dilip Gaonkar; Modern Rhetorical Theory with Robert Hariman; and a Rhetorical History seminar in American Public Address with David Zarefsky. Rachel is correct, I only have three hours of class three days a week, which means my schedule is unbelievably flexible. However, the workload of these seminars is daunting: the Zarefsky seminar alone includes ten tough writing assigments (one for each class day) and hundreds of pages of reading each week. Plus, it is basically expected that the paper for each seminar completed should be ready for publication in a scholarly journal of national repute. The faculty do not joke when they say we will be the most well-trained, well-published professionals on the job market in five years. Or at least that's what I will tell myself each night at 3am.