Grad School, I'm Through

I've submitted my official resignation letter.  I've cleaned out my office and turned in my keys (I did this Saturday evening to minimize the chances of encountering anyone in my program there; I saw one of the new assistant professors in her office, but she didn't see me - hah, sucker).  So I'm outta there.

I threw out almost all of my articles, etc., in my office, but I need to go through and figure out what to do with the box of things I brought home, as well as go through the articles, etc., that I already had here.  I can't quite face it right now, but I figure I'll get to it some time later this week.

I've decided that when the next person asks me what I'm doing next, I'm going to tell them that I am running away to join the circus.  (I know these inquiries are just curiosity and are kindly meant, but I'm sick of being asked this question nonetheless.)

One thing I am doing is right now is focusing on getting my health back after it was basically destroyed by 3 years of grad school.  It would be much worse if I hadn't maintained my time-consuming treadmill regimen even on my busiest days (unfortunately, at the expense of sleep).  My diet was pretty good -- probably 85%+ as good as "normal" -- but I think it wasn't good enough.  And the stress was a real killer.

The test results from my check up just before the holidays were good.  Almost everything was in the healthy range, even my blood cell counts that have been down since the Great Blood Loss Diet almost 20 years ago, and they determined I do not have a thyroid problem or rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia, but my inflammation number was slightly elevated (0.6 when it should be below 0.5).  My main problem is that I have been feeling really crappy, and I'm ready to stop feeling that way.  I'm hoping that some lifestyle changes (in addition to eliminating the primary source of stress in my life by quitting grad school) will help.

To be continued...