Things I Didn't Know About Grad School Before I Started, Part 1

(Sure to be the first installment of a multi-part series.)

1. If you're a grad student you are also an amateur caterer.

One thing I didn't know about grad school before I started was how much of my time spent pursuing a MA and Ph.D. would also be spent carting ice, sodas, water, wine, and juice across miles of pedestrian campus. I didn't know how adept I would become at preparing fruit trays, aesthetically pleasing displays of cheese, and graceful arrangements of cups and napkins. I had no idea how to calculate how many lemon bars the audience at a guest lecture by a professor emeritus at a second tier liberal arts college in New England specializing in the intersections of Renaissance drama, queer theory, and ecocriticism would be likely to consume at a reception held at 5:15 p.m. on a rainy Friday in April--but I do now!

And they say grad students don't learn practical skills! I am counting on some of this coming in handy if I find myself unable to procure a job in academia and am forced to become a caterer full-time...