A month in

Even before the grading starts, combining five tutorials a week of teaching with all of my dissertation work has been draining at times. I just got home from a long day, but before I can sleep I need to prepare my lesson plan for three tutorials tomorrow and my semi-structured interview questions for two new research subjects.

Independently, I was talking with a friend about our maladaptive tendency in personal social relations to focus excessively on things that have gone wrong and people who either don’t now or never did see us the way we would prefer to be seen. If there’s a range of feelings others can hold about us from -100 meaning absolute loathing to 100 meaning profound admiration and over-riding love, we overemphasize efforts to try to shift the people at -50 back toward the positive — ignoring how the world is full of people who are willing to start us at 0 with no learned skepticism about us.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here. View all posts by Milan