2008

This has been a very good year for me. I might go so far as to say it's been the best year ever. That honor previously belonged to 2006 (the first half of it anyway) when I was in Sweden; the rest of 2006 wasn't as spectacular. This year, however, has been consistently good for me. Let's review, shall we? (in a hopefully not too self-indulgent way) January began the last semester at the U of A, I became the Anthropology Club Treasurer and I became a member of the Golden Key Honor Society. I applied for grad school at UMass (the university I wanted the most) and got accepted in February, they were the first to respond so the rejection letters from the other universities didn't sting at all (I also later found out I was among twelve out of 110 or so applicants to get accepted). In March I go to Sweden for Spring Break and see my old friends in Uppsala again. In May I became a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, finished my Honor's Thesis and completed an honor's contract course thus enabling me to graduate with Honors from the U of A (as well as Magna Cum Laude). My dear friend Stephanie flew in for my graduation and a marvelous time was had by all. I got a summer job doing the least demanding and highest paying job I've ever had and caught up on my reading list in the process. I took dance lessons for a couple months and learned how to waltz, tango, foxtrot, salsa, cha-cha, rumba and East Coast swing. I celebrate the 4th of July in Vegas with my friends.
In September I move out to Amherst and have an absolute blast with all the international students. I got into the European Field Studies program, something unusual for first year grad students and something one must be vetted for before they let you in. I discovered the quirkiness of neighboring Northampton and the...educational experiences at Smith College. I started doing parkour (though had to quit after a month and a half due to mangling my wrists while trying to impress my parents) and learned a bunch of new conditioning exercises. Under the exacting tutelage of my adviser I produce a research proposal that is given funding (more than we were initially told) as well as the full $1000 from Sigma Xi.
In about a month and a half, the plan that I have been working towards for a year will begin to unfold. For an entire year, though a combination of my own ability, knowing the right people and just plain good luck, everything that I have set my mind to achieving I have accomplished with greater success than I had ever planned on. I'm forging my destiny, building my life, making it happen. Every selection process, from honors societies to grad school application, course vetting to research funding, every one of these successes has been the result of someone thinking I'm smart enough, clever enough, good enough to take a chance on.Now all I need to do is prove I can get results. That's what 2009 is for.

Yes we can, indeed.

"But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he he always wanted."

For those of you who haven't been kept apprised of the details of my fortunes at UMass, here's a very pleasant update. The European Field Studies Program is the primary reason I came here for grad school; it gives students the opportunity to write a research proposal and at the end of the semester present it to a committee that decides whether it's good enough and if it is, they receive funding to do fieldwork in the European country of their choosing. Mine is on immigrant integration in Sweden. I want to study how Swedes perceive the large number of foreign born living in their country as well as see how immigrant populations are being assimilated into society. We gave our oral presentations to the anthropology faculty last Monday and we were all told how good they were, one of my professors said they thought that mine was the best in terms of calmness and pace of the presentation itself (being a theatre major turned out to be applicable after all!).

On Friday, after the committee met and looked over all our written proposals, we found out that all five of our projects had been approved for funding. We got written feedback from the committee, who had suggested changes for all of our proposals, and they said that my design needed to be changed because it was too ambitious. I'm not bothered by that at all; it's far better to be told you're too ambitious than not ambitious enough, plus that means that I will have to do less work than I originally planned. My professor said that because my proposal had tried to cover too much too quickly, I should focus on one aspect of it (they said it was up to me but they're strongly hinting at working the Swedish perspective) and the other half shelf until I write my dissertation. She also said that because there was very little research being done in Sweden I may have found a niche that I can work with for the rest of my life. That's really good. Especially considering that that's what I told UMass in my application but once I started this project I found that it wasn't exactly completely untrodden territory and thought perhaps I had spoken out of ignorance. Turns out here are still some rather big unanswered questions concerning Swedes and immigrants.

But wait, there's more! The EFS committee managed to scrounge up some additional funds for each of us and we are now all guaranteed $4000 for our trip. I was also told yesterday that the grant that we all applied for, Sigma Xi, was being awarded to two of us: myself and a physical anthropologist going to London. I had completely written off getting that grant; we wrote up the proposals back in October and they were rushed, vague and effectively the first draft of what is now an 18 page research proposal. I kept saying that I have every confidence I'll get the thing where it needs to be by December, but not a chance by October. Not only did I get it in spite of the normal fierce competition, but the economic crisis meant that Sigma Xi had even less money to give out than usual. I don't know yet how much money they will award me, but it may be up to $1000. I also was told that the retreat planned for next semester where we would all meet in France to discuss the progress of our respective projects is almost certain to be cancelled. Though disappointing in one sense, it means I can shave about $330 off my budget. This, combined with the dropping value of the Swedish krona, means that my expenses keep going down, my funding keeps going up and the money I have will take me even further than normal.

Going to Sweden to do my first real fieldwork has been my dream for nearly a year now, and to have it come to fruition, and have everything fall into place in ways that have exceeded my expectations... yeah, it's a good feeling.