From both sides now

I've been re-thinking my approach to this whole semester. Instead of complaining about the workload, I'm going to approach this semester from the perspective of all the things I'll miss about it, one year from now. (I'm saying "one year from now," because I'll still have one more course in the fall semester, and so will it be that different?)

One year from now, I will miss:

• The camaraderie of spending all my time with the same group of people. Yes, we PhD students will still be kicking around somewhere, and the 2-year MAs will still be here, but many will be gone, and it won't be the same. We're becoming like a great big family, and soon it's going to change.
• Having regular structure in my life. I have a define schedule, and regular deadlines, and that makes me work better. I don't do very well when I have to structure myself, with some big, far-off deadline.
• The quality of work that I'm producing, while I'm in this constant state of working, reflecting, and debating with others.
• Having a reason to change out of my pyjamas.

I need keeping looking at this list, and start appreciating that I have all this, right now. Next year, on the other hand, someone remind me to appreciate:

• Having a flexible schedule.
• Being able to work on what's important to me, and not having to feel like I'm wasting my time other work.
• Being able to read what I choose to read.
• Being able to stop and watch a movie, or talk to family, every once in a while.

Switching Joni Mitchell songs, I don't want to spend next year singing, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone?" (They paved paradise, put up a parking lot, ooooo la la la la ooooo la la la.) (Great. Now that's stuck in my head. When it's there, it stays for weeks.) I'm going to start trying to appreciate what I have, while I have it.