Another end leads to another beginning as my fall semester officially wraps up! All final papers and projects have been submitted, and I now have the luxury of fully focusing (or mostly focusing) on my continued recovery from my foot surgery in August. I started physical therapy a week ago and I’ve been pretty diligent with my at-home exercises. The goal is to work on strengthening my muscles again and working on my balance.
The end of the semester culminated with my advisor, Dr. Claire Cameron, coming back to Buffalo for a few days to attend in-person meetings at U.B! It was a pleasure to get to see her again, and other SPEC members—that’s our research writing group! We went to Pizza Plant down at Canalside to have a cozy, little dinner. We talked about our personal lives and upcoming work. We had a lot of fun together!
It still blows my mind that the semester is over! I felt like it flew right on by. This isn’t very typical for me, as other virtual semesters I’ve had in the past have felt like they took forever to end. Could it be the healing and recovery from the surgery that made it speed up? Looking forward to each appointment to hear what we were going to do next? This is what I’d like to think potentially happened. But this winter break is going to feel even shorter, I bet! I’ve officially signed up to take the Research Analysis Exam (RAE) over winter break so that I can proceed with my candidacy for the PhD degree. I’m confident that I’ll pass it, since I’ve taken mock ones before, and I’ve had a lot of research experience at this point.
I also am going to be teaching my very first college course! I was selected to teach the in-person section for Introduction to Child Development in the spring time. I’m both excited and nervous! I’m hoping to use this time over break to prepare as best as I can for the course. I want my students to have a successful and fun semester with me!
To round this all up, I wanted to briefly mention on a more solemn note that we as a City are approaching the one year anniversary of the fatal Christmas Blizzard of 2022 that killed at least 47 people. We can talk about the negligence at every government level in preparation for this storm, but I’m going to leave that up to WGRZ, who did a story about a memorial march and rally I was present for on Saturday.
I marched from Trinity Episcopal Church on Delaware Avenue to City Hall holding the tapestry with the name, Doris Williams, on it. After the rally was completed, we laid out all of the banners on the steps of City Hall with flowers and battery-powered candles. It was an emotional event with tears, prayers, and hugs.
I didn’t know Doris, but I wanted to speak her name. She was a woman in her early 90s who was found passed away on Christmas Day at the Lyndon B. Johnson BMHA apartments, where she had lived for 30 years. The building had lost power, thus losing heat. The cold permeating her apartment for days proved to be disastrous. WIVB had interviewed the family after President Biden had officially declared a major disaster in March 2023 so that federal aid could be sent to the city to help with recovery. May her family receive the graces they need as we wander through this holiday season.
And may all of you have a happy, healthy, and safe time with family and loved ones, and a fantastic new year if I don’t post again until 2024!
Samantha Didrichsen, MSED. 