T Minus 2 Weeks . . .

It's coming down to the wire.

I can't complain. I signed up for this thing. I can't say I didn't know what was coming.

It's a little demon that all graduate students must exorcise at some point or another called comprehensive exams, more affectionately known as "comps." For me, it's a set of 9 intense essay tests over a 3 day period that tests your knowledge of basically the whole canon of Spanish and Spanish American literature from medieval up to present day. Oh, and there's a section on linguistics/teaching methodology/history of the Spanish language too.

It's crazy. Every time I look at the reading list, I get weak in the knees because there is no way . . . the task is more than daunting.

It's not like we're expected to have read every single solitary work on the list. But we need to be at least familiar with everything on the list. ::cough::summariesandarticles::cough::

Surprisingly, I'm not freaking out as much I thought I would be. Sometimes I wonder if I should be freaking out more. I've been more serious about getting stuff done, at least. If I keep it up, I should have my bases covered. Even if I fail a few sections, I will have the chance to take them over. But I don't even want to fathom the prospect of failure.

If I can just get through this, the rest of the school year will be beautiful. I may even pick up a part-time job when comps are over because this semester we're not getting paid boo.

**Bonus**
An attempt to answer the million dollar question: "What are you going to do after you graduate?"

I graduate in August. And though I wanted to leave for France as soon after graduation as possible, it looks like it will be more reasonable for me to wait until January 2010 to leave. What that means is that I'm going to have to figure out what to do with myself from August-December. What would be fabulous is if I could stay on as an instructor at Auburn. If that doesn't work out, maybe I could find an instructor position at a college in Montgomery. After that, it'll be on to France for 6 months. After that, I might join the Peace Corps. Or I might go to seminary. Or I might apply to a PhD program. Or I might decide to work abroad. It's frustrating not knowing what I'm going to do. But I'd rather not know what I'm going to do due to an abundance of options than not know what I'm going to do because I've run out of options.