7 months later...

As we can all see, this blog was not as "addictive" as I previously suggested it would be. I have to do better with these posts. So much has happened in the past 7 months. As for an update from the previous post, I am back on facebook and twitter although with little activity. Once I passed my prelim/qualifying exam in Oct/Nov (YAY!), I decided to semi-reconnect with the world. Definitely a huge milestone in this journey of pursuing my PhD. And on top of passing prelim, I also did well in all of my classes.

As for this year, I promised myself that I would do better with self-care. As a grad student, it is easy to lose sight of the importance of this. I have to get back in the gym, church, salon (hair and nail), and out with friends on the weekends. I need balance in my life in order to get through this thing called "grad school" as a healthy individual, physically and emotionally. So in efforts to fulfill the physical portion of self-care, I decided to commit to insanity for the month of January and February. Now, as of today, Shaun T can shove it! Lol he is intense and I'm sure these workouts work miracles IF one is able to stay committed for the entire 60 days; however, it was hard to stay committed while doing these workouts alone :/ After the 3rd week, I was starting to lose motivation, and by the 4th week I had totally given up :( I need a workout partner! So yesterday after completely bombing the Insanity workout, I made my way to the gym and ran for a half an hour. Yep, I'm back to training for my 5Ks that are coming up in the next couple months. I also have my eye on a personal trainer that may be able to give me the motivation that I've been missing in my workouts. When I was in VA, I always had Charisse to hold me down as a workout partner, but now I need a partner in the A.

I have a new job at Georgia Tech working for the Center of Women, Science, and Technology (WST) so I spend my time coordinating events for the learning community there and assisting with other projects as well. I do that for them, and they pay my tuition and fees. I think thats a fair trade-off :) I decided to give Barnes and Noble a break for a while, probably until the summer...I'm going to miss the crew until then. That job was my break from the world, not because the job duties were lax, but because of the people. My coworkers were down-to-earth and my boss was crazy cool. If it wasn't for them, I would've been left lol. 

Anywho, my research is off to a great start. I am dissertation topic involves developing a robot tutor to teach children math in underrepresented communities. This is why I do what I do, just watch =====> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrIs5bkuTBE. I am expected to submit my work to the IEEE SMC conference by the end of the semester for my first publication!!! So excited, but nervous all at the same time. I have so much work to do, but I love the responsibility. With that said, I really need to get back to work. I'm not going to make any promises, but I'll try to be back tomorrow for another post.

Vonda B