I suppose it is fitting that the last two weeks of a crazily busy semester would be crazily busy. Knowing that ahead of time did not necessarily help matters.
Public Finance is one of the core requirements for Urban Policy students, and for two years now I have watched friends and colleagues grapple with the end of that course and seem to become exhausted yet positively GIDDY with excitement over one of our projects, wherein we are tasked with balancing a hypothetical state budget. This year was my turn in this marathon. I did that budget project, and then my planner started vomiting lists of deliverables and I have not really looked up much since.
You see, the same week that budget project was submitted, we submit our final exam for Public Finance and then we have one other small deliverable before we’re finished. So suffice it to say that one becomes rather IMMERSED in public finance during this weird end-of-semester bubble. Throw in preparing my take-home final for Poverty and Social Policy and a final paper for Sustainability Perspectives and Practices, continuing work for my fellowship, and the ongoing Quest for a PDR Client, and I am sure you can understand, dear readers, why I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that I finished my work for this semester on Friday. It was not a dream; I really can file my course materials, clean my apartment, and, oh yes, I believe we may have some little things called THE HOLIDAYS to enjoy now. Blimey. So basically, I’ll still not get any rest to speak of until we’re into January.
My Poverty and Social Policy final afforded me the opportunity to actually think about how personal aspects of people’s lives–such as family structure–could possibly be considered in policy terms, given my own feminist, progressive politics. I did find engaging that issue to be a particularly interesting touchstone in reflecting on my own politics and self.
While I may hopefully have great news on the PDR client front shortly, I’m holding off on writing about that process until I do (for hopefully understandable reasons). I feel like this process of finding our own clients for our final projects can be a bit intimidating, and one of our tasks here is to demystify as much of this process as possible. So, as soon as I can, I’ll address that. This spring semester I’ll also be blogging about the process of actually DOING a Professional Decision Report (PDR) as well as other experiences probably all falling under the rubric of “senioritis”. 
I’m really ready to be done. Really. I set up my fall semester to bear the brunt of certain scheduling items so that this spring term will be less hectic. What a relief. That may have been the most clever move I have made in graduate school. Really. When you’re really ready to be done, actually having a few minutes here and there to help maintain your sanity during that last push is truly invaluable.
Have a wonderful New Year!
