Item

The Surprise Degree

Title (Dublin Core)

The Surprise Degree

Description (Dublin Core)

When I first began my MA program in Fall 2019, I thought it would be really, really funny to not tell anyone I was pursuing a second Master’s. I figured at some point, I would slip and end up mentioning it. But instead, all our lives changed with the pandemic, and since I didn’t see a person besides the four people I live with for almost 13 months, anyone discovering my graduate program was no longer even a consideration. The MA program actually helped me keep my sanity. In those first couple of months, when everything was up in the air, my courses were a constant. And then in the mundane of quarantine, they challenged my mind, distracted me, giving me something to do. Who knew the random genealogy class I took last summer would lead me to discover 1. that my biological great great grandfather died when my great grampa was only 9 2. that no one in our family knew this and assumed his step dad was his dad 3. that this mysterious biological great great grandfather was not a poor wheel maker from Germany, but was a salesman involved in some suspicious activities that involved a sister being sold (national news! In all the papers of the 1890s), a robbery and attack on him (with the ominous newspaper title “will it be murder” because he was presumed to not survive... he did), and ended with his dramatic suicide when the police were attempting to arrest him for embezzlement ... in front of my nine year old great grampa?!? How strange to think that without quarantine I would never have taken the time to research this (this investigation took over three months!) and my family would still think our ancestry on that side were German wheel makers who fled the Kaiser! When I finished my MA last month, we thought it would be funny to do a photo shoot (never did that for my other degrees) and post it on Instagram. I cannot believe the amount of comments. People were over the moon excited. I think seeing any positive surprise coming out the pandemic gives people hope. And my weird idea that it would be really funny to not tell anyone? Yeah, it was. No regrets.

Date (Dublin Core)

May 22, 2021

Creator (Dublin Core)

Kathryn Jue

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Kathryn Jue

Type (Dublin Core)

Photograph

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Education--Universities
English Home & Family Life

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

graduation
genealogy
surprise
master
distraction
graduate

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

genealogy
graduation
surprise
graduate
master
distraction

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

A tray that says "When life throws you a rainy day, play in the puddles".Disneyland Main Street After Closure Announcement

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

06/01/2021

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

06/02/2021

Item sets

Covid 19

This item was submitted on June 1, 2021 by Kathryn Jue using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive

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