Thanksgiving break in Carbondale…as an architecture grad student:

By: Casey Bucher 

The life of a graduate student is nothing short of spectacular.  People tell you all the time, “oh to be young and in school again” or “it must be nice to not have to wake up everyday and go to work”. My favorite is always “how are you going to survive in the real world, all you’ve ever known is school”.  Let me tell ya, it just makes me feel even better about myself every time I hear it.  The funny thing is, most people just compare my grad school experience to their undergraduate life.  Little do they know, getting your masters of architecture degree is significantly different than any undergrad or graduate program.  Sleep? yeah right…you’ll get that after you graduate. Money? Seems like everything I earn from part-time jobs goes straight to a model, presentation boards, or 11x17 print-offs.  While many grad students can relate to the limited sleep and money problems, not many understand the feeling of living in the studio.  Deadline after deadline makes it hard to have much of a life.  The most recent example of this would be Thanksgiving “break”.  The normal student’s break would consist of: home, family, food, sleep, fun, little bit of homework (maybe), more food, lots of sleep, finishing up with a little bit of fun.  The architecture grad student’s break: work, homework, work, eat, little bit of sleep, homework, homework, homework.  I only wish this were an exaggeration! Through the many late nights working in the studio, the sight of graduation in the somewhat-near future seems to get everyone through.  It’s been a long, painful road for us…but well worth it in the end. Countdown to graduation: 166