Tag Archives: grad school

Please excuse me, my brain is fried

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So as anyone who has been following The Stolen Colon for any length of time probably knows, I tend to over book myself. I think this happens for a couple of reasons… first of all, I do have a problem saying ‘no.’ I’m just not good at it. And secondly, almost all of the things I get involved in I really WANT to do, which makes it even harder to say ‘no.’

Right now, I’m in the middle of a bunch of big life moments. Four, to be exact. I have made my way through two of them: Running a half-marathon and being a part of the planning committee for CCFA’s Take Steps Walk. But I am still having to prepare for the next two: Finishing up my graduate school research study and taking a really big trip with my husband.

I have been pretty overwhelmed with things lately and, sad to say, finding time to write on here tends to be the first thing that falls to the side. Especially when I feel that I am spending every waking moment dealing with this research project and whenever I have a moment to breathe, I feel that my brain is so tired that trying to do something like writing more just doesn’t sound appealing. Usually anything beyond sitting on the couch or taking a nap doesn’t sound appealing.

research project graduate school study final paper writing stephanie hughes stolen colon crohn's disease ulcerative colitis inflammatory bowel disease ibd blog ostomySo I am really looking forward to having this research project completed. (It has to be in just 5 days!) It has been a really interesting project, as I have had to opportunity to focus on IBD-related things, and I am excited to share it all with you at some point.

I am also looking forward to tell you about the Take Steps Walk we had over the weekend. It was a crazy day of running around and trying to get everything done, but we had a beautiful day for it and raised over $100,000!

But all of that will come soon. As I mentioned, I will finish up this project by next Monday and then I hop a plane for Europe just 3 days later! I am really excited to have a few days of vacation and nothing to worry about besides not getting lost in Italy and finding some place with yummy pasta. And once I get home from that trip, it’s time for a breather. I am trying my best not to make many plans for the weeks that follow because I just want to enjoy some down time.

I’m in the homestretch. The light at the end of the tunnel is rapidly approaching, which just means I have to kick it into high gear for the last few miles. I look forward to catching up on here soon. So, until then…

So I have this theory…

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I think I’m really going to like my Communications Theory class. I know, anything with “theory” in the title and it sounds like a snooze-fest, but it’s actually really interesting. What I like about studying communication is that it really just discusses things that you already know, but may have never thought of in a laid-out, academic way. We all can picture how we would act or react in a certain situation, but we may not know why. Communication theory provides ideas of why people do the things they do.

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But I won’t bore you with all of the details of the socio-psychological tradition or the differences between objective and interpretive theory. I really just want to talk about my first experience back in the classroom in over five years.

I got to the classroom about 15 minutes early, but I wasn’t the first one there, so that was good! It was nice having just been to orientation with a lot of these people because I felt like I was having class with people I already knew, even if I had just met them briefly once. There are 17 of us in the class, including the professor, and he had us move our desks into a big circle so we could really make the class a big discussion rather than a lecture.
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Ready for July

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fireworks july celebration monthly goals stephanie hughes stolen colon ostomy crohns blogI can’t believe it has been a whole month since my half-marathon and, in just another couple of a days, a whole month since my surgery. Time flies and stands still at the same time.

I had big goals for June, but only two: run a half-marathon and recovery from surgery.

Thankfully, I made it through both without a hitch! I was even able to tackle my secondary goals such as sorting through my filing and starting back to work. However, I’m still having to come to terms with a lower level of energy as my body heals. I ended up working a 50-hour week last week (how does that happen??) and I am feeling the effects now. That’s why I’ve been absent from the Stolen Colon since my post on my first day back to work.

But I am glad to be starting another month. It makes me feel that I am officially past my surgery and the initial recovery and can start fresh with getting back to normal life… even if that means trying my best to still take it easy.
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