This post is part of a series. View the last post for context.
I had to take a little break from making videos. My job used to be fun. Now I listen wistfully to Shania and the student team doing fun stuff while I sit in my office solving boring problems. Do you ever feel like all you do is try (and sometimes fail) to solve problems? Today is one of THOSE days. My calendar is blocked off in 15 minute increments. I’ve been meaning to go get a Dr. Pepper Zero for like two hours but there’s NO TIME.
This is what it’s like around here in April, intensified due to personnel shortages, but otherwise not so different. And isn’t the semester like that in April as a student? It feels like everything is due, or about to be due, and you’re starting to get burnt out. I’m sure it’s not just me, because every student I talk to is absolutely over it. Just ready to get this thing done. And I don’t blame them, because I feel it too. So you’re not alone! We’re all in this together. Hang in there.
Let’s talk about my classes! For Foundations, I just turned in an Annotated Bibliography — believe it or not, my first one ever — and tomorrow night, I lead the discussion on fandom analytics, a marketing perspective on fandom. It’s an obvious choice considering my background in marketing, but reading this text made me remember why I left the master’s program in marketing to do something different. I don’t like reducing people to audiences, loyalty to a sales goal, and diehard fans to “consumers.” There may be an element of truth there, but I found the tone and approach reductive.
Tomorrow will be a relatively chill day in my Poetry Workshop. We’ll talk about Erika Meitner’s This Is Not a Requiem for Detroit and discuss how to go about making our own digital chapbooks.
Lastly, allow me to apologize for forgetting to turn my camera sideways and making the video annoying to watch. I should probably apologize for my messy eye makeup but I will not say sorry for being who I am.
Don’t forget to watch the video above, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check back every Monday for more in this series. As always, email kristen.walker@utdallas.edu with questions and comments.