Schoolwork...for pleasure

I have been reading many of the blogs on here and some of them discuss taking time out to read for pleasure.  After I read these blogs, I feel motivated to read for pleasure; I get up from my desk and scan my collection of novels, but then that little voice in my head reminds me of reading that must be done for school.  I retreat back to my schoolwork and let the novels on my bookshelf collect dust once again.

I try to make time to read for pleasure, but then I look at my calendar and realize that the quarter is flying by and I have 2 research papers to work on.  As a graduate student, it is so difficult to find the time to read for fun, to have a social life or to even focus on certain favorite TV shows.  Either I am taking the program too seriously by putting in more studying than I need or this is just something I need to suck up until June (when I am officially done with the program!). 

As a solution, I have decided to look at my readings for school as reading for fun.   Not to say that reading for school isn’t fun and I have to force myself to enjoy them, I am just choosing to look at the readings as more than just a necessity in order to do well in class.  Since I am mastering in Rhetoric and Composition (completed my Lit emphasis last year), I have taken quite an interest in the ancient Greeks.  Though the writing at some points is difficult to get through, the ideas that were presented during that time is so relevant today.  I have found that I do thoroughly enjoy reading the ancients and consider it pleasurable reading. 

During school, I may not be able to choose what I want to read, but I have enjoyed the readings I have done thus far.  Schoolwork can be enjoyable and can be considered reading for pleasure.  The novels on my bookshelves will continue to collect dust, but for the time being, I will continue to view reading the ancient Greeks as a pleasurable read.

My novels will have to wait to be read…until winter break, of course! 

Faithfully,

Cristina