The bachelor party/first day of grad school

Last night I returned to Syracuse from my weekend back home. The primary purpose for that trip was to attend Darren's bachelor party Saturday night. Eight of us went to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to go to a strip club, hit a casino, and drink. I'm not going to go into all the sordid details of the trip (it was pretty much what you would expect from that kind of a night), and I couldn't do it justice anyway. It was, without a doubt, one of the most fun nights I've ever had. It wasn't just the gambling, drinking, and naked ladies-- although I am by no means diminishing the importance or awesomeness of those things-- it was more about getting a chance to spend a night with seven of my favorite people and cut loose and have a great time. While all of us spent a great deal of money, I don't think anyone got in too far over his head. I did get a lap dance, but I maintained some semblance of discipline... I held myself to two songs (partly because, midway through the second song, Cory looked into the room and shouted, "Niz! Remember!").

So, after a great but tiring weekend, I got up early this morning to begin my career as a grad student. Today was just an orientation day, so it was dull but not really taxing. Tomorrow the real classes start. Interestingly, they had us take a grammar diagnostic test of 50 multiple choice questions. The purpose of this test was to see which students need help brushing up on their grammar skills, and a series of "grammar slammer" classes will be offered in the evenings. I was surprised that so many people seemed to be dreading this test. After all, it was only a diagnostic, and even if you did really poorly, the grammar classes are technically optional. Plus I figured that anyone looking to get a master's degree in communications would have a pretty good handle on the English language. Not so, apparently. Granted, I'm in a program that's all about writing, and I understand there are a lot of other programs in the school where writing is not important (photography, broadcast journalism, film, etc), but communications school... grammar... kind of seem to go hand in hand. Anyway, a lot of people were terrified of this test and were talking about how little they understood grammar. So I took the test and I got 43/50 (86%). I was a little disappointed in myself. Yeah, it's a decent score, but I destroyed the verbal sections of the SAT and GRE, I've written a novel, I read constantly... bearing all those things in mind, I felt like I shouldn't have missed any questions, let alone seven.

Well, when I got home today someone from the school had sent out a mass email, letting us know how the scoring broke down. The average score was 62% and the highest score was... 86%. So, out of the 200+ people in the communications school, it would seem I am the finest grammarian. This naturally gives my confidence a little boost heading into classes, as well as the fact that I've been doing some reading for my intro class on news writing, and everything that I read makes immediate and intuitive sense to me. I probably would have written news articles this way without reading a book telling me to do so. So I'm pretty confident in my abilities when it comes to the mechanics and the structure of my writing. I think it's likely that, from a technical standpoint, I will be among the best writers in the school. That does not mean, however, that I have no concerns about becoming a journalist. I'm fully aware that I'm going to have to get past my natural reluctance to do research and I will need to develop the habit of digging for every possible fact. I also fear that interviewing people will not come naturally to me. Still, I guess it's a nice luxury that the quality of my writing is literally the least of my worries.

That's all for now. I'll be back sometime later this week to relate how the classes are going. Until then, keep on keepin on.

-Nick
PS-- We were told today that the incoming grad school class in the communications school is something like 64% female. By my own estimates, the ratio in my specific program is even more favorable. Things could be worse.