#looking to get ch. 3 posted for ryeji day so fingers crossed i succeed in that endeavor

[lonewolflink]

Hi Link! How are you? How have your job interviews going? What do you do for work? You don't have to answer if that's too private. I hope the rest of them go well! I'm very excited for the next update.

hi anon! real talk i'm dead fucking tired, but super happy to be home from the last of these fly out interviews.

my "work" is being a grad student, so currently that means writing my dissertation and teaching courses to undergrads at my university.

i'm set to graduate at some point this summer, though, which means this is my last year of grad school. and that's awesome, but it also means i've had to spend a lot more time applying to jobs, about 75% of which have been jobs to be a professor at a variety of colleges/universities (honestly i feel way too young to be applying to these jobs but technically...i AM qualified!).

i made it to the second round interview stage for three professor jobs (!!!!!) which is super exciting, but for those they like. fly you out to the college and you usually do a teaching demonstration observed by half the department to students you've never taught before, often on material you haven't taught before, you also give a research presentation, and have a million back to back meetings with deans and provosts and faculty members. so basically these "trips" are like a 2-day nonstop audition. it's pretty brutal, especially including all the travel (even worse when it's between time zones).

because of all that i've literally only had 10 or maybe 11 full days home all of january. it has...sucked. i'm so tired. honestly the whole school year has been mega stressful.

my coping mechanism, unexpectedly (to me anyway), was to get back into kpop (i had a decent kpop phase back in the day, like late 2nd gen to mid 3rd gen)...i hadn't really listened to itzy at all until august/september and then idk i just really fell in love with them (it's hard not to!! once ryujin got her claws into me it was game over).

i figured i was already kinda going insane from all the stress of the last year of grad school so why not commit to being a full kpop stan, at least until i finish the phd...and then hockey au came into my brain and. well. here we are. glad you're along for the ride :)