fall break?

No, of course not. I don't really get fall break this year. My days off will be spent writing pages and pages convincing people to accept me into their schools/give me money to go to school/give me a good grade on this assignment.

I am at home this weekend, though. My middle sister is home from college for her fall break so I came too to come see everyone. It's been good. I actually slept last night, and there's good food to eat here. Plus, I love my family a lot and I'm glad I'm getting to spend a little bit of time with them.

It's been a rough semester. I am exhausted. The schoolwork doesn't end and on top of that there's graduate school applications, fellowship applications, ACM stuff, and SLC stuff. I may have signed up for too much this semester. I wasn't counting on my grad school apps taking this much time and energy. 

On a happier note, it's beautiful outside! Next Monday Sarah, Sarah, Lea, and I are going to Crowder's Mountain, and I'm pretty excited about that. I love the fall. Now that my laptop has battery life, maybe I can take it outside sometime while I'm working through all these applications.

So the GRE went well. I was delighted with my scores. I sent the scores to Clemson, Virginia Tech, Brown, and MIT. I don't know that I'll complete applications for all of those but I aim to. So far, half the Clemson personal statement is written, and that's it. Still working through the rest of the personal statements.

I'm applying for somewhere between 1 and 5 fellowships. The biggest one is the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. It is a monstrous application. I've completed a pretty close draft of the personal statement of that one, almost a full draft of my previous research statement, and have started thinking about my research plan. The other applications are less intense, and I can kind of bend the GRF materials to fit them, so that's what I'm planning on doing. (They also have later deadlines!) Anyhow, the fellowship list is: GRF, NDSEG, Anita Borg, NSSE, and...DOE? I can't remember. I have a list somewhere.

I'm taking the computer science GRE subject test on November 8. I need to begin studying for that. It's a really difficult test. At least several friends are taking it with me. We can study together.

Classes are good. I barely think about them since I'm so buried in all else, but I'm getting the work done and doing okay in all of them. I can't complain. I work really hard but I have a lot of fun too. 

Here are the things I am looking forward to in life right now:

- the Halloween party Samantha and I are hosting

- going to Crowder's Mountain

- getting the bridesmaid dress for Sarah's wedding

- being done with all these applications

- getting enough sleep at night

- going to see my sister in Charleston one weekend

- getting my ESV study Bible in the mail this week

- Chad's musical theater thing on Tuesday

so yay. I won't die.

Hmm...what else...

Guess that's about it. Nothing outstanding or insightful, just getting through things right now!

I hope you all are doing well :)