oh surprises
so, the reprieve from school stress was short-lived. this morning, i had the impression that i had 2 papers left: number one due friday (sust. planning issues class -> intellectual property rights as counterproductive to sustainability issues) and number two the 30-pg paper from hell (on the failed water privatisation debacle in Manila and the social movement through global channels that made the gov't. act ) due "whenever i want[ed]." LAS ok'd the deal, and all was fine with the prof.
life was so beautiful. i was beginning my 630 am - 1 pm shift at the coffeehouse and life was grand. i was going to focus all my energy on writing the 494 paper, get it done by friday, piece of cake. the 2nd paper would wait til school was over, and i would be afforded all the time in the world to lounge around coffeeshops, pretend i was a grad student/free-lancer, and eventually turn in the behemoth around the end of may.
and then! oh fuckers!
then i got an email this morning asking when i was expecting to turn it in, as the grades are due by the 17th. so basically, i need to turn it in this weekend so that the prof has time to grade it in time. WHAT!! YOU LIAR! YOU LIED TO MY FACE! oh why did you lie. my stress level jumped to timbuktu, i died some inside and life generally sucked. how? how? am i going to write 35-40 pages in 4 days? it erased the epiphanies that i had been mustering for a week or so. i felt as worse as i have all semester - about school, myself, relationships - all the positivity accumulated from living it up, putting thinking on hold, and coming to terms on things on my own time >poof!< i don't even know why this affected me so much, but it put me in a really fucking sad mood. great. 2 shitty papers instead of 2 excellent ones, in subjects i truly want to learn. once a fuckup, always a fuckup...
and then part two, in which i emerge semi-triumphant and at least inspired
at 4, i had a meeting with a prospective advisor for my environmental fellows capstone. the chap is an amiable man who did int'l. studies for undergrad, rural soc and soc for master's and phD. lived and worked in mali on environmental and community organizing issues... i see similar interests and outlets here.
long story short, i will be doing
1. local and national research
why would a community want to (re)assume local control of water? -> and why does this community want to do this?
what are the issues here in urbana in regards to the water supply, who are the players (interviews! from the water co. to city council officials to residents to unions to university utility workers) --> what is the scope of the problem?
what are the other fights against RWE (the company that owns our water) around the country, what are they doing to mobilize?
is our (urbana) water better provided publicly, privately or in a partnership?
what is the state of social movements for local control of basic utilities, more specifically water?
2. be doing community organizing
informing urbana citizens of the issues - social, environmental, political
connecting the disparate groups of people calling for a reevaluation of how water is managed here
getting together petitions to call a referendum on how water should be provided, or a referendum to renegotiate (or nullify?) the water supply
taking cues and examples of community organizing against RWE in other places -> kentucky, tennessee, more and learning from their experiences/strategies
and 3. and connecting it to the international privatisation schemes under the neoliberal political machinery. this question i already have the most info for, thanks to the international planning seminar, aka hell, class for which the paper is due.
why does this happen/where has it failed/where has it been successful/where do people have power, what avenues of change does the average person have available to them.
So, I now feel interested again in my hell paper. Inspired again bc of its importance to people's survival there and what it means to us over here. What lessons does that social movement have for us in our similar fight against poorly executed privatised water?
It's going to be fucking terrible this week til Sunday but at least then the small fry will be over, and I can really work on things to change lives. Just gotta buckle down and really bite the bullet (again...)
note to self: also, I need to stop spreading myself so thin. Just in general. I can see myself starting to do it with summer plans, even....