You'd think since I'm not teaching this semester I'd be immune to the semester rhythms, but today, having spent the day on campus, I feel jarred by the amped up stress levels, the sense that things need to be getting done: independent studies need to be drawing to a close; students need to be signing up for fall courses; honors papers need to be nearing their 'finalish' drafts; everyone's plans for the summer need to be taking shape. In grad school I frequently compared this sense of time running out to water going down the drain--the way it tends to gather momentum and seems to go more quickly as the last visible bit disappears into an audible swirl.
I suppose it can be productive to get caught up in such a swirl. My goal was to finish my last chapter before the semester's end, but given that the chapter has broken in two, with one part to be spliced with an earlier chapter (better fit) and the other to be expanded into its own, I'm not sure what exactly will happen as the last bit drains away.
