Tales from DC: National Half Marathon

Me, the day after. Plenty of energy and stamina, but some joint soreness.

I've come a long way.

I'm too goal-oriented for my own good, and I don't often glance back to see where I started.

I've struggled to be athletic when I was younger. As a kid with childhood asthma, I was benched the entire year I was in little league soccer. It doesn't help that I also was born with a leg twisted funny so I tended to trip over myself when running. Of course the only way to fix problems like that is to, well, run anyway. But that's hard to do when you're sitting on the bench.

After soccer, bless my parents, they put in martial arts. Turns out the next best thing for leg twisted like mine was to do a lot of kicking. I did a lot of kicking. I kept the inhaler in the sensei's office desk and it took some time to ween myself off of it. I used to have to use it two or three times during a one-hour class. Gradually, I got to where I only needed it once. I remember the day when I took it out the last time--very out of breath and ready to use it. But I decided I didn't need it. I finished the class and felt mildly proud when I finished the class without needing to use it. I didn't tell my parents, or anyone really.

I joined track in high school because my friends were doing it and because there were pretty girls and because my friends made me realize I should be doing a sport where you got to hang out with pretty girls. At first I threw disc and shotput which made no sense because all the rest of the guys were linebackers and I, well, wasn't a linebacker. But then I got into doing 4x400 relays and fell in love with running.

I took a considerable break from it when Mimi and I moved to DC. Balancing fulltime work and fulltime graduate school is crazy by the way. But since I've restarted, it was with the goal of working up to a marathon at some point. Halfway there!

The National Half was a good race. I was warned to train hills, but I thought that was ridiculous (this is DC! What hills?!). Apparently there are quite a few. So some soreness in my ankles but no blisters and no other soreness.

Decision 2011

Whew boy...

So with a baby coming in October, I have a huge choice before me that will affect my life for at least the next three years. Which Ph.D? Thus far I've been accepted to three (with two others that I should hear from in the next week). And three I've gotten into are all excellent programs with good reputations. There are a lot of positive things about each one. What makes the decision so difficult is that there isn't an obvious "bad" choice.

All three programs are fullrides--they include all the bells and whistles of stipends, insurance, conference funding, etc. 

All three programs encourage continued growth in practical experience in the field, and the development of at least one foreign language.

University of Missouri-Columbia: Is consistently rated as one of the best journalism programs in the country (if not the best). Missouri was the first university in the United States (the world) to create a journalism program. Missouri also is the only option with an obvious mentor relationship (although I would likely work with them little beyond the dissertation phase of my study) and is the most accelerated communication program in the country--PhDs finish in 3 years as opposed to 4 plus.

However, there are few job opportunities outside of Missouri for working and there are limited options for study/research outside of the Missouri-Columbia environment. My wife and I have a few contacts in Missouri, but largely we'd be forming a network from scratch in Missouri.

University of Maryland-College Park: Would offer a broad range of options for study outside of Maryland as well as within. The consortium at Maryland includes Georgetown (my alma mater), Catholic University of America and George Washington University. It's proximity to Washington, D.C. also makes it a prime location for research in the city.

Since my wife and I have lived here three years, we also would have solid support network. On the downside here, Maryland also has no obvious mentor figure for my field of research and the cost of living in DC Metro area is significant to say the least.

University of Texas-Austin: Would offer me more chances to teach. I'd be teaching perhaps throughout my entire career at Texas which would bring more income as well get me used to large, lecture hall teaching of which I have little experience. Since my wife is from Texas, this also allows for a solid support network for us.

On the downside, there are limited options for study at universities outside of Texas and there is no obvious mentor figure there that I could study under.

This is a tough one.

A Letter to the University of Pennsylvania

Annenberg School of Communication
University of Pennsylvania
3620 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19104-6220

To Dr. Michael X. Delli Carpini,

Thank you for your letter in late February. As you know this was an especially competitive year and I've been particularly impressed with the rejection letters I've received this year. With such a promising field of candidates, the decision making process has been especially difficult.

While there is no easy way to say this, I regret that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me admission into the Fall 2011 doctoral cohort. Despite your excellent qualifications and experience in rejecting potential doctoral students, your letter does not suit my needs at this time.

Therefore, I will be assuming a position on your doctoral cohort this coming August. I will be attending the accepted student orientation the last weekend of March and I look forward to seeing you there.

Respectfully,

Greg Perreault