It looks like Houston

After a lot of waiting, and intermittent emails from Dr. Melosi insisting he had not forgotten about me, I got an offer from Houston for a research assistantship. It includes a tuition waiver (the big expense) and a monthly stipend. I will be doing various assistant-type tasks for the Center for Public History. In other words, I'll be working for Dr. Melosi. I don't know the value of the stipend, yet. Dr. Melosi gave me the email addy of the program director with instructions to contact her. I immediately did, but have yet to hear anything back from her. So, I'm back to waiting. But at least now I can work on my application package and know that I'm going to Houston. Technically, there's a chance I wouldn't get accepted. After all, I've done this all backwards and have not actually applied, yet. I sent Dr. Melosi an official transcript of my studies here at UNF, a writing sample, my CV, and a short personal statement. If he didn't think I'd get accepted, would he put all this effort into arranging funding for me? And to assure me that if I don't get a teaching assistantship starting Fall 2011, that he'd make sure I had funding to continue at Houston? No. So I'm celebrating this as an acceptance and going forward accordingly.

This means I'm moving to Houston in January . . . alone. Scary. I mean, I'm not scared to be alone, and I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. But it's scary to think about not seeing Steve everyday. I learned last summer when I was in England that I miss him terribly when we're not together. Being apart a week or two? No problem. For months on end? BIG problem. With any luck, I'll have a schedule that provides a 3 or 4-day weekend. Then I'll just come every few weeks and have Steve time. Or so I think. We'll see how reality messes that plan up come January.

So Houston is my future. My present, however, includes finishing my paper from last semester (the one for which I received an "I"), doing the cosmetic changes for my thesis before it goes through it's final round of approval, doing homework and another paper for my current (and last) master's class, and graduating. So I should probably quit blogging and get working.

Many changes

Wow, the last post I wrote was from February. It was when I got my acceptance at Lancaster. I was so excited. I eventually received acceptances from Stirling and St. Andrews, too. St. Andrews was quite exciting. It's well respected here and my advisor would be the head of the environmental history center there. So lots of excitement and feelings of accomplishment. Unfortunately, none of the acceptance letters came with funding. The economy in Britain is a lot worse than here, and what funding it does have is left for UK and EU students. It makes sense, but it's a big disappointment for international students, like me. After much soul searching, I let go of my dream. It hurt, but it was the right decision. I have moved on, and I know that I will get to spend time doing research in England down the road. So I just consider it a postponement, rather than a cancellation.

In the mean time, I have to sort out my future. I have decided to go on for a PhD here in the US. I still fret about my age upon graduation, but it's something I want and Steve doesn't want me giving up entirely on my dream. I've got three universities within my sight. It's too late for fall admissions for any of them, but one does have spring admissions. Thanks to one of my current professors, Dr. Closmann, I've been able to talk with Dr. Martin Melosi at University of Houston. The history program there matches all of my interests - English, environmental, and public history. So the school is the perfect fit. If Dr. Melosi can rustle up some spring funding for me, I will go to Houston in January. If he can't, I will apply there, plus at Kansas and Wisconsin-Madison, for Fall 2011. Dr. Melosi said he'll let me know by next week at the latest about what he can arrange, so fingers crossed.

In the meantime, the spring semester is done! I had to take an incomplete in one class, because I needed more time to make changes to my thesis. I will finish the paper for that class by the end of this month. Meanwhile, I defend my thesis tomorrow! I'm excited about it. A lot of my friends say they're going to be there for the defense. Then we're all going out tomorrow night to celebrate everyone's accomplishments.

Right now, I'm enjoying a few much-needed down days. And I'm now going to get back to that down time.