🏫 Getting Schooled 8/31/25

This week, I was walking past a room with free pizza, so naturally, I decided to go in and ask if I could get a slice. I stroll up to the table where two stereotypical frat boys are standing guard over the pies, and one goes, “This is actually a rush event, but I guess you can get a slice. We have pepperoni and cheese.” I go in for a slice of pepperoni, and the other frat boy says, “For some reason, I pegged you as a vegetarian.” I don’t entirely know what I am supposed to do with that information. Do I give off vegetarian vibes? 

As a reformed frat boy, I say with 100% certainty that we sometimes say the craziest of things. Now, get ready to hear about all the crazy things that happened this week and find out What’s Up With Will…

School has officially started this week! It feels surreal that it is finally here, as this whole process has been in the works for almost a year at this point. There have been so many steps along the way, from the headaches of writing personal statements and editing writing samples to wrangling letters of recommendation and the stress of waiting to hear if I got accepted to programs.  It has been a long, arduous, and emotional journey. Not to mention that, for a while, we had no clue where we would be going after Rylee graduated. That being said, I am excited to get started with grad school.

I have two classes this semester. The first one is an introduction to Graduate Communication Studies, where I am going to be introduced to the various fields of this discipline, as well as be prepared for graduate-level coursework. Communication Studies is a broad subject, but only because, according to the class, meaning-making is the essence of all communication(academics refer to this by saying its constitutive).

The second class is a teaching class (pedagogy if you wanted the technical term) where I will learn how to navigate the classroom, develop a curriculum, and ultimately, you might have guessed it, teach. As a part of this class, I am also interning with an instructor teaching a course to get a boots-on-the-ground experience. If all goes to plan, I will be teaching my own class pretty soon!

I think the hardest part of this semester will be adjusting to graduate school work, including both the new workload as well as creating a proper work/school/life balance. I have already been creating a schedule for when to do what, but you know what they say about best laid plans… However, the program seems incredibly supportive, and the teachers seem wonderful, so I do not doubt that I will land on my feet in no time.

Don’t worry, school wasn’t going to stop me from having a good time this week. I have some adventures to share with you.

I started my first outing with a free wine tasting at the Holbrook House. The most surprising thing was that when I arrived, they informed me it was not just a wine tasting, but a champagne tasting. The Holbrook House has this beautifully designed interior courtyard/patio/lobby area, and it was a perfect ambience for sipping expensive wines. 

I couldn’t stay for long because I had to head to Oracle Park. As a side note: How often do you think people are wearing Giants merch while drinking champagne? I could easily see it being both more and less than I would expect.

With the Giants having lost almost every game I have been to this season, I felt like it was my duty to join in on the time-honored tradition of critiquing athletic professionals who get paid millions of dollars a year for their skills. In order to properly critique, though, I started reading Coaching Baseball For Dummies by Greg Bach. I now know all about the fundamentals of batting and pitching, several drills to improve players’ skills, and how to organize a parents’ meeting about carpooling. Yeah, so there might be more of an emphasis on coaching baseball for children in this book, but I imagine the core principles are the same.

There was a special Skee-Ball tournament that night with the giveaway being a Giants-themed basketball jersey, which immediately had me a little concerned about whether they knew what sport they were playing. Those fears were quickly quashed as the Giants won 12-3. I’m going to take some partial credit here, thanks to my fantastic new coaching skills. It goes to show that with a little hard work, anything is possible. 

The best way to end the first week of school is to have a long weekend. And the best way to spend a long weekend is to go to Disneyland! Disney is currently celebrating its 70th anniversary and has just started its Halloween season. There were lots of new food items (the pumpkin tiramisu cold brew and ube custard filled chocolate Mickey Waffles being some of the standouts), themed characters (Donald was a devil and Goofy was a scarecrow), and parades (Paint the Night was colorful and luminescent). It feels weird to say it when we were surrounded by people the entire trip, but we really enjoy getting to spend some quality time together with just the two of us.

There is something so mentally refreshing about going to Disney, and yet I am exhausted at the end of the trip. When someone asks what I did this weekend for this and future trips, I think I am going to start telling them that I walked a marathon instead of going to Disney. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration either.

In the weeks up to Disney trips, I frequently watch Disney related videos. In honor of Rylee’s favorite character, here is a video showing the real star of Disney. Did you know that Donald Duck won an Oscar? I didn’t.