As this is a new semester, and there are some new faces, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself! My name is Marykate and this is my last semester of graduate school! And what a busy one it’s going to be.

I’m wearing quite a few hats this Fall, one being a teacher during these crazy times! I teach 8th grade Language Arts and my district is participating in the Hybrid Model of Instruction, which will be interesting to say the least. Our kids start on the 14th, so I’ll keep you all posted on how chaotic that is, but it’s all going to be okay-it has to be right?

I’m also wearing the hat of a graduate student in the final stretch of her thesis!

But I really am fine! I’m nervous and I know it’s going to be a lot of work, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m really proud of all the work I’ve been doing! I’ll tell you more about that later!

But my most exciting hat this Fall is that of mom-to-be! My husband and I are expecting our first child, a baby girl, at the end of October! So it’s going to be a whirlwind next couple of weeks!

So needless to say, my mind is being pulled in a million different directions and sometimes it’s hard to focus on one thing over the other! In terms of my thesis project, my goal is to be finished, or basically finished with the exception of a few finishing touches, by the time our daughter gets here. Which is a little daunting. We keep counting down the weeks (8 right now) until she’s here, which I’m hoping fly by because I can’t wait to meet her! But then on the other hand I’m like HOW DO I ONLY HAVE 8 WEEK LEFT TO WRITE MY THESIS? So I’m only slightly freaking out haha….but my motto is that everything will get done because it has to!

That being said, let me tell you a little bit about my thesis! I chose to go back to school with this thesis project in mind. This project has always been my end goal, which has definitely made it easier to hit the ground running.

I chose to write a young adult novel that deals with normalizing mental health. As someone who lives with anxiety, specifically Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I’ve always wanted to raise awareness for mental health and work to break the stigma surrounding it. Within my novel, the two protagonists, Joy and Trevor, deal with OCD and bipolar disorder respectively. So far, I have 18 of 36 chapters written and a loose Lit Review completed. I have so much more of their story to tell and more research to complete, but I am incredibly proud of the story I’ve written and the characters themselves.

I’m looking forward to working with all of you and hoping that through your feedback and support, I can make this story even better! I would eventually love to see if I can publish it, but for now, I’m enjoying crafting the story!

For the purpose of this course, I’ve decided to write my weekly blog posts, but then I’ll also post the new chapters I’m working on in a separate post for you to read! Please feel free to go back to my earlier posts and read the story from the start! I hope you all enjoy it!

xoxo

M.B.