Reply #39: halfway through my first semester of grad school [View All]

[Lisa]

At the time, I was in a faculty that didn't have teaching posts for its grads -- there were some research assistantships, but those accepted at the last minute (like me) were out of luck. I was sharing a house with a bunch of other people, and even though I'd loaded up on groceries at my folks' place an hour's drive away, my roomies ate most of the stuff by the following day. I was reduced to hanging around the campus conference center, trying to mooch leftovers from the sandwich plates that they'd have for high-level confabs.

Also, I was on a research crew that spent the summer in the Arctic. Freak ice conditions prevented the supply boat from getting through, and we basically had to subsist on tea, rice, and powdered milk for several weeks.

But I can't imagine what it must be like to have to worry about feeding kids -- the above situations were bearable because I knew they were going to end eventually, and I had nobody depending on me.