On Monday, October 2, 2017, I was out in DeKalb, IL at Northern Illinois University to attend the last face-to-face doctoral class with the group of people with whom I started this PhD journey. We have additional coursework, but this is the last time we will all be together.
From left to right in this photo: Ade, Catherine (front), Danielle, Karen, Rabab, Flora, (me in the back), Dr. Psu, Brigitte (who joined us this term after taking a year off), Kristin, Ahmad, and Rakez. In a strange twist of the universe, Kristin and I were in the same class during our masters in library science program at FSU many (many) years ago. Cool how the universe brings people back to you. I’m learning a lot from these people!

At the same time, I’m a teaching assistant for an undergraduate class at NIU. This is my second term doing this – and so far it’s run quite a bit smoother than the last term. Perhaps part of it is experience – I know a bit more what to expect from these students, like what questions and issues they run into during the semester.

Not to keep myself overly bored, I’m also working full-time in my “day job” as an instructional designer at the University of Illinois College of Medicine – Chicago Campus. We are going through a pretty significant curriculum change, so it’s been a very stressful year as we have been preparing for it, and now implementing it.

Let’s see what I can do to take care of myself during this period, so I keep myself sane and healthy!