She leans back in her chair and takes a deep breath. A feeling of serenity washes over her like the cooling waves found at Venice Beach. Reruns of Grey's Anatomy stare out from the television, and even the dishes are done. This is a good feeling.
She has only a moment to enjoy this new experience before the same old anxiety takes over. What should she be doing? There certainly must be some schoolwork to complete, some reading to do, some writing to finish? Is there something left undone? Surely there must be something left undone! Argh!!!
Wait! She's finished all her work for the semester. It's summer break!
What on earth does she do now?That's me tonight. I just turned in my final paper, and my work is done. Wilson paper? Done! Vann paper? Done! DiMare paper? Done!
The first days after the end of a school semester are the most confusing of the entire year. It takes a week, sometimes two, before I begin to feel like a normal person again, not a harried student. Having spent the last five months scurrying to keep up with books, papers, discussion groups, and lectures, I am now a lady of leisure--at least as far as school goes. Day-to-day drama still goes on, the search for a job, the worry about money, but all that recedes into the background as I contemplate such exotic pleasures as reading non-academic books, playing with family history, working around the house, etc.
I wouldn't trade my chance to be a part of a history graduate program for anything, including all the tea and opium in nineteenth-century China (yes, I am still afflicted by some of the reading I've done this semester). But there is no feeling so fine as that of having completed all my work. Unsettling? Yes. Delightfully so? You bet!
She takes another breath. Serenity washes over her again, lasting a little longer this time. She knows that it will last longer tomorrow, then longer. It won't be long before she'll realize that no school work will be required until August. It's going to be a great summer.
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