thoughts on a new semester

So far, so good with the new semester. My 20th Century History class is going to prove quite interesting. We're embarking on a class research project into eugenics in Mississippi. Turns out that there's still a law on the books allowing for the sterilization of "defectives" in this Great State. We'll be looking into why it was passed and if it was implemented and anything else we can discover. I'm excited about this because I feel that I'm in a unique position to help research this issue from a legal perspective, seeing as how I work in a law office. . . Our findings are going to be posted online as a part of the History Department's website, so I'll post a link whenever that gets published to the www.

My greatest challenge this semester shall be, of course, my senior thesis paper. I feel confident about where I am; I spent a great deal of my free time over the break reading into the subject, and I've done a bit of writing, too. Alas, I cannot help but to fret that my paper will not be as good as it should be. The research seminar class in which I'll be writing this paper met for the first time tonight. Our assignment is to revise our research prospectus and present the new and improved version next week in class. Honestly I'm at a loss as to how to improve my prospectus. I have a few books to add to my bibliography, but other than that. . . it looks pretty good. I'll do some thinking over the weekend and perhaps try to revise my thesis statement in consideration of some of the things I've read recently. What else can I do?

I talked to our campus advisor for the history society Phi Alpha Theta about presenting a paper at the regional conference in February, and I'm seriously considering doing so. I've just got to convince myself to get over the (irrationally scary) thought of presenting my research to a group of strangers and peers so that I can avail myself of this excellent opportunity.

Tomorrow brings my first test, (in health class -- ugh!) to be taken after a 9 hour work day, and so I think sleep is a good idea at this time.