tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715765599002162093.post-76976499065366403752008-06-24T20:25:00.000-07:002008-06-25T08:26:20.833-07:00Tonight, Lacie and I had people over to her place for dinner. It was a nice mix of people - her friends and my grad school friends.<br /><br />During the course of the evening, my friends Andy and Seth, who were meeting for the first time, both said they thought I was getting the most out of grad school of anyone they know.<br /><br />Life in Athens as a grad student can be a very lonely thing. Grad students in general appear to be slightly anti-social, and we always seem to be busy. In addition, several times when I have mentioned that I am a grad student, I have noticed a slight shift in undergrad disposition toward me. It’s like they suddenly worry I’m grading them on their partying.<br /><br />What separates me from other grad students is that I don’t take it all so seriously that it’s not a fun, enriching experience anymore. I don’t have to be here, but I want to be, and I’m getting paid to be. So why shouldn’t it be awesome?<br /><br />I’ve embraced Athens completely, its people, its businesses and restaurants, and its history. I’m in love with the cemetery at the Ridges. Though I can’t say I think Athens is a center of culinary excellence, I will say that I enjoy Big Mama’s and Pita Pit and O’Betty’s and the milkshakes at the Court St. Diner.<br /><br />I have been a little frustrated all year that the other j-school students had no idea what I was talking about when I spoke about parts of Athens. Not only had they not explored beyond Court Street, they hadn’t really explored Court Street, other than the bars.<br /><br />This past quarter, I finally got involved with student theatre, and I found shared interests to be a much better impetus for friendship than proximity or academic program, neither of which really panned out in the end. The j-school grad students began fall quarter by having dinner every Thursday night, but that gradually disintegrated and serves better as a quaint memory than it ever actually did as a social event.<br /><br />The student theatre group turned out to be a great source for people I’d want friendships or relationships with. My Facebook is now full of friends I made through this group, and these are people I believe I will keep in contact with for the rest of my life.<br /><br />I don’t really blame the j-schoolers for not getting too attached to anyone or anything here. We only expected to be here for one year; why would we want to invest that much of ourselves in something other than our education? I have a reputation for telling stories about all of the strange stuff I get involved in, and people sometimes look at me like what I’m saying is crazy, but I can’t live any other way. I open myself fully to the world around me, and I think that’s part of what makes me an artist - that, and my ability to then filter those experiences into text or graphics or performances. I freely began a rather serious relationship with someone, and I allowed myself to fall in love, all with the knowledge that the expiration was mere weeks away, when she was going to move away from Athens permanently.<br />The coming pain will not be too much of a price to pay for the weeks before. <br /><br />This is my life, and my time in Athens - though it be an aberration from the rest - is not a break from my life.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/715765599002162093-7697649906536640375?l=overheardinpgh.blogspot.com'/></div>Chris Griswoldnoreply@blogger.com2