{"id":65,"date":"2015-10-30T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/?p=65"},"modified":"2015-10-08T17:15:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T17:15:41","slug":"hello-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/hello-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello all!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"natasha__\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Goodbye Toronto\u2026 Hello St. John\u2019s!<\/p>\n

I am one month into my first year of my Master\u2019s degree in Archaeology, and so far it\u2019s been great. I\u2019m Natasha and I’m originally from Ottawa, Canada, but I\u2019ve spent the last four years at the University of Toronto completing my undergraduate degree. Toronto had become my home; it\u2019s where I became an independent adult, the first place since my hometown that I had established roots. When it came time to apply for a Master\u2019s program in my last year of undergrad, Memorial (MUN) seemed perfect, as it’s one of the only schools in the country that offers a Master\u2019s program in Archaeology. When I decided that MUN was the place for me, I just remember thinking: \u201cWhy am I doing this to myself? I\u2019m going to have to start all over again\u2026 What if I can\u2019t make friends?\u201d Little did I know how fast I would make friends and start laying down my own roots here in St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

On my first day, I attended orientation. As a timid first year Master\u2019s student, I sat down in the auditorium, anonymous. What I remember most was when the dean of graduate studies, Dr. Faye Murrin, spoke about the impostor syndrome. It was the first time I had ever heard of it. The impostor syndrome describes the feeling that many graduate students have of not deserving to be where they are. I remembered my own thoughts when I first sat down in the auditorium: \u201cI don\u2019t belong with these smart people. They must have made a mistake. Surely I am not ready for this. Surely I am not equipped enough to start this journey\u201d. Dr. Murrin reassured us that we are all here because we are qualified and that the university is there to guide us through this journey. When people around started whispering that they also feel this way I thought to myself: \u201cI am not alone\u201d. This enlightenment gave me a newfound confidence to identify with my peers and to go on with my day.<\/p>\n

Later on that day, I got my keys to my office. MY OWN KEYS!? MY OWN OFFICE!? I was thrilled. I opened the door and chose my desk. Soon enough it was so cozy. I have it decorated with post-it notes, a MUN coffee mug, work for my classes, and books on archaeological theory. I have visited the library a couple times now to grab books for different assignments and have been astonished by the great variety of books the university holds. The librarians have also been really helpful when inquiring about lending books from different institutions as well. This resource has been very useful to me for the three courses I decided to take this semester. I know\u2026 three courses\u2026 while working on my own research\u2026 what was I thinking? But it\u2019s actually been quite manageable so far. Two of them are required for my program and they are designed to help guide graduate students during the initial stage of their research. On top of this, I am taking an undergraduate course that follows a similar format but designed to guide honours archaeology students through their honours project. This course is helping me structure a side project I am working on with my supervisor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been such a wonderful experience working with a group of such passionate graduate and undergraduate students. The best thing about it is the friendliness and comradeship. Everyone is so willing to help each other out. We\u2019ve edited each other\u2019s work and supported each other academically and emotionally. We\u2019ve all become quite close. A group of us graduate students in Archaeology now get together weekly to go to Trivia Night at the Graduate Students’ Union<\/a> Restaurant and Pub, Bitters<\/a>. It\u2019s been a really good bonding experience. I\u2019ve gotten to appreciate all of my colleagues\u2019 expertise in different subjects. It\u2019s just crazy how meeting a couple people opens you up to different experiences. Since then, I have been invited to a vegan Jigs Dinner (a vegan version of Newfoundland\u2019s time-honoured meal) and participated in a kinesiology study for my roommate\u2019s thesis project.<\/p>\n

Of course it\u2019s not all fun and games. Well, it depends what you call fun. Being a part of a research-intensive program, I have been working on my own research as well. There\u2019s a lot of reading and note taking involved as well as lab work. I work in the Memorial Applied Archaeological Science (MAAS) lab<\/a>, where I\u2019ve been familiarizing myself with equipment and preparing my archaeological samples for the next step of my research, analysis. I love this stuff, but it is a lot of work.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say it\u2019s been easy. Just ask my roommates who hear me flop onto my bed everyday when I get home. But, so far everything has been getting done. I think the key is having a working routine. For me, everyday I know generally what I\u2019ll be doing and where I will be. Obviously, unforeseen things always come up but I can easily rearrange my routine for that day to accommodate them. Another thing that really helps is having a supportive supervisor that wants to provide you with the tools you need to succeed. My supervisor, Dr. Meghan Burchell, has been so helpful and welcoming. Every couple of days I pop into her office to remind her that I\u2019m still alive and I always leave more equipped than I did when I had entered, be it with books, a reference letter for a grant application, or sage advice.<\/p>\n

Like the Beetles\u2019 song says, I get by with a little help from my friends. More than that, I\u2019ve been getting by with a little help from my friends, my routine, and, of course, Jigs Dinner. So far, so good. I think this is a good precedent for what I expect to be one of the best years of my life.<\/p>\n

~Natasha<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goodbye Toronto\u2026 Hello St. John\u2019s! I am one month into my first year of my Master\u2019s degree in Archaeology, and so far it\u2019s been great. I\u2019m Natasha and I’m originally from Ottawa, Canada, but I\u2019ve spent the last four years at the University of Toronto completing my undergraduate degree. Toronto had become my home; it\u2019s … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-natasha-leclerc","4":"post-65","6":"format-standard","7":"category-student-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}