Hello Everyone!

I had this beautiful, eloquent, masterfully poetic introduction for you today. Truly, it was my magnum opus as a newsletter writer, and then Cleo ate my opener.

I have never done the “pet ate my homework” routine, and I highly doubt that it would fly in grad school (especially for a final, which, spoiler alert: this week is about). And yet, enacting a deeply ingrained cliché to my life seems appealing and completely on brand. This had me thinking, where could it fly with minimal consequences? My newsletter, a space that aims to at times reflect part of the cultural zeitgeist, while trying to avoid being overly derivative in the process. A place that actively tries to adopt the type of irreverence that this joke entails.

With this said, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

It was a long, arduous week spent firmly at my desk, but as the dust settled and the clatter of the keyboard ceased, I was left standing in the wake of my first finals week in graduate school.

I only went into class one day this week for my Introduction to Communication class, where everyone gave presentations on our literature reviews. The teacher also gave out cupcakes as a special treat to everyone for getting through the first class of the program. I gave the first presentation, talking about how fun and play can be used in the communications classroom, and then sat back and enjoyed my peppermint mocha cupcake as I cheered and supported everyone’s hard work over the course of the semester. I also had to play IT support for the class, as no one else’s computer seemed to work on the projector.

Taking a gap from school, I forgot just how insurmountable finals week can feel. There were multiple times along the way when I felt extremely overwhelmed and almost ready to quit. There were times when I felt like I wasn’t good enough, but I pushed through. Whenever a problem arose, I overcame it. This process made me realize that I can achieve when the going gets tough. Ever since I graduated from undergrad, I think I may have developed a fear of hard things. The truth is, though, that by doing this, I discovered that this fear is mostly unfounded. I am capable of success when the going gets tough.

A lot of my professors say that the first semester of grad school is always the hardest, so here’s to easier semesters in the future. This is not to say that I will not be moaning, complaining, and overwhelmed by other papers and finals weeks in the upcoming semesters, but that I will hopefully be better equipped with the knowledge that I will complete these things just as I did the previous ones. And that’s a good feeling to know.

I would like to give a special thanks to Rylee, my parents, my teachers, my fellow peers, and all of my friends who have encouraged me as I was going through this week, and the weeks leading up. I honestly could not do it without any of you.

As we are amidst the holiday season, here is the mandatory Christmas updates section for the week!

In spite of the Finals week, I did manage to have a bit of time to explore. This week, SF Symphony released student ticket deals for most of their holiday shows, so Rylee and I looked at our calendars to find the show that made the most sense for us. What we landed on was Holiday Gaiety, an LGBTQ-themed adult holiday variety show! Hosted by Peaches Christ and Edwin Outwater, with performances by Evan Mills, Adore Delano, Sister Roma, Sapphira Cristál, Nikola Printz, and the Sane Francisco, the show was a very merry way to celebrate the holidays. From a naughty elf-on-the-shelf to a Santa variant of “I Need A Hero”, as well as an operatic tea-spilling session, and an aerial acrobatic dancer singing “Defying Gravity,” so much happened in the show that it's hard to truly encapsulate how incredible it was.

Additionally, as we would be away on Christmas day itself, Rylee, Cleo, and I celebrated our own Christmas at home together! We had an excellent steak cooked by Rylee herself, and sat to open presents! And as we tore open the gifts, Cleo started running around the apartment playing with all the discarded wrapping paper (I think it was here where she ate the newsletter opener BTW).

And then we were off to the airport to spend Christmas with family(with a quick stop at Brandt’s Christmas Party along the way). As I won’t be writing to everyone until after Christmas is over, I hope everyone has a happy Holidays!

I stumbled on this banger of a video recently of a man talking about his disgust for Cutwater premade cocktails. According to him, Cutwater is one of the “worst things facing our society today” and a “terrible thing that is affecting the very core of our existence”.