Nerd Sqaured

To echo Mary's post here, there are some moments when I know I want to be a grad student. Yesterday I had one of those moments. Gian Biagio Conte's massive Latin Literature: A History is a book I've been coveting for a while, and finally a few weeks ago I broke down and bought it. To be totally honest, I didn't even take it out of my weekly budget, under the pretense that "Preston's a Latin teacher! He can use it too!" And then this morning after relishing in the newness of crisp, unturned pages full of beautiful words, I took my pen and wrote "MARY FRANCES" on the inside front cover of the book.

But you guys. Seriously. I look at this book and I just want to inhale it. I want to know it all, to learn it all, to understand it all. And it's when I step back from myself and realize how genuine my excitement about this book on Latin literature is that I think, "OK. You are in the right place. Graduate school is the right place for you at this time in your life. You can breathe." So, in the midst of this truly terrible time in the semester--a time when I'm feeling incompetent and exhausted--that is a comforting thought indeed.