61 Down, 2 to Go

As I noted a couple of posts ago, the final week of the semester consists of nothing but grading and writing essays. Just a few days ago, I had approximately 60 essays that needed grading as part of my TA responsibilities and, for my own classes, three essays that needed writing. I'm happy to report, all of the essays that needed grading have been graded, and one of the essays I need to write has been written, printed, and submitted. That leaves two essays to be written between now and Thursday morning. Fortunately, I got an extension on one of the papers, since the professor who is requiring it is also the professor for whom I had to grade the 60-or-so essays. That got me some sympathy. If not for that, I'd have two essays due within two hours of each other early Monday evening. I'd be panicking if that were the case, especially because I'm not even sure what I'm writing for one of them.

I'm in relatively good spirits, all things considered. Usually, I'm so frazzled at this point that it's hard to look forward to the end of the semester. I can't even look that far ahead. But I'm incredibly excited to be done. I look forward to spending lots of time with my own family, lots of time with family and friends when we go home for Christmas, and lots of time not thinking about school. Funny enough, I almost bet I will be less likely to write once I am free of my school responsibilities, in part because I will not be looking for a distraction (which is often how a post gets written). I'll try, though, and I feel like I've had a lot of ideas for posts lately. So stay tuned and we'll see if something doesn't pop up. Until then, be wishing me luck over the next 120 hours or so. I'll be needing it.