what I learned in Grad school pt. 1 of many

Things I learned in Grad school
I am writing this after my last "official" day in grad school. Without accessing notes, just off the top of my head, here are some of my impressions on what I have learned about history, graduate school, and quite possibly myself (throws up).
First of all, I was te youngest person in my cohort. nobody else went straight from undergrad to graduate school - they had experience in the"Real world", getting full time jobs and marrying before coming here. This both intimidated and inspired me - intimidated, because i was surrounded by such mature, articulate scholars, and I was just a novice whose every word sounded, compared to theirs so much less informed (as it seemed to me). Inspired, because I realized just how much I actually knew while being 20 or even 30 years younger then these people, and how much potential for growth I still had. The experience of working and talking with them was easily the highlight of my semester.
While I didn't' get to know a lot of my cohort that well outside of class (shamefully I still don't' know much of their names), I managed to become good friends with three of them - Josh Martino, John Blanton, and Peter Alguer. All of them are blazingly intelligent, funny, mature individuals, and I can't wait to see them over the winter break. I might not have had time to see my G-school friends as much as I was able to see my Rampo friends back in undergrad, but since I should be seeing them for the next 8 years, I have plenty more time to get to know them.
My teachers are - quite a range of thoughts on this one, actually. I was expecting wise sages, and I got that in spades for sure. But they didn't seem as personable as the folks at Ramapo. Perhaps it is because they are so pressed for time, torn between different campuses, teaching responsibilites, research work, book signings, etc. It is flattering that I am simply in the same room as some of these peopel, but it also hurts when I am brushed off, again and again, because the professor has other priorites. For example, I tried to keep showing one professor my paper after each draft, and by the third draft he was visibly annoyed. Perhas I shouldn't have kept coming to him, but my insecurities drove me to it - and I never had the experience of a teaher directly begrudging the possibility of heling a student. A the same time, this same professor (who shall remain namless) truly is brilliant, and the discussions we've had in class I will always remember. Our other professors are equally intimidiatng/brilinat. I remember getting in a conversation with one about Slumdog Millionaire and being blown away by her analysis - and this from a polish sociologist! Hopefully as I keep taking courses with them in the future I willo begin to see them as partners as opposed to gatekeepers, whon whose every word my fate is determined.
What did I learn? Well, it depends on the class (of course). IN my seminar each o fus basically worked on our own individual papers, with little time for in-class "lessons". Still, it was wonderful delving into my topic for this seminar, bicycling in New York. Our literature of American history course was quite useful in getting me up to speed in terms of my pre-1865 history, and a few of the texts I took out I hope to buy over the winter (I didn't buy a SINGLE BOOK for ANY of my courses this semester, relying on New York's amazing library system to get me everything I needed. w00t. ) Comparative history opened my eyes to an enormous range of critical theories which I want to incorporate into my future work, including transfer hsitory, histoire crossee, entangled histories, and various other methodologies. Out of all my classes, however, it was definitely Philosophy of History that shaped the way I think the most. The free-wheeling discussions we had about life, fat,e, the value of capitalism and democracy, man's responsibility to man, etc were quite stirring, and will form the basis of many a future blog post. I was particularly struck by the philosophies of Reinhold Niebuhr, a brilliant and compassionate theologian of the mid-20th century who urged mankind to refrain from the kind of idealistic, yet ultimately futile attempts to bend history to their will, whether through fascism, communism, or the spread of so-called "universal" values such as Liberalism. While I don't see myself becoming an intellectual philosopher, what I learned in this class has undoubtedly made me a more perceptive, more compassionate human being. That has to count for something.