"You're supposed to feel inadequate. If you don't, you're not doing it right."

These words, spoken by the brilliant Chuck L. were what got me through my first year of graduate school. And unfortunately, they pretty much define every grad student's life I think.  Or at least they should for the first year.  Until you figure out the game, that is.

Yes, the game.  Graduate school is a big unfair game.  You have to figure out what to read, what to skip, who to trust, who to listen to, who to avoid, who to befriend, and what office person holds the power.  Here's the best tip I can offer: make friends with the administrative assistant.  Believe it or not, they have more power than the professors.  Why?  Because generally speaking, professors don't know how to access registration systems, contact the scholarship office, get you registered for exams or graduation, and most of them can't stick to a timeline any better than you can.  Administrative people, on the other hand...that's their whole job!  So here's what you do: always stop in to say hi when you're in the office, especially when you don't have something to ask them.  Always give a little holiday card, and a thank you card at the end of each semester, and most importantly if you take a trip, bring them a little something.  I suppose it's buying their help, but they're usually most most fun people in the office anyway.  They usually have the dirt on all the faculty, they know all the good gossip, and they've been around long enough and see enough students go through that they can tell you stories that will make even the most lost little first year feel like they've got all their ducks in a row.

So, yes, you should pretty much feel like you're drowning and that if you actually wrote one cohesive To Do List that you'd need an entire roll of butcher paper.  If you don't, you're not doing it right.  And yes, you should, at some point, forget to read something, forget your presentation date, and forget to write a paper.  If you don't, you're missing something.  You're not reading enough and you're not doing enough background work.  It's like those footnotes.....there's always a little extra fluff that you can skip but there's a WHOLE lot of other stuff you should be doing that no one will tell you about until it's too late.  Who do you ask?  The administrative person!  Wondering how to get in good with the chair of the department?  Ask the administrative person!  Wondering how to get on the graduation list that was due three weeks ago?  ASK THE ADMINISTRATIVE PERSON!