7AM: I wake up and make coffee on muscle memory, I let the dog out and sit outside with him for a while, taking in the new day. Once I’m fully conscious, I head inside to make breakfast – eggs and spinach, salsa if I have it. I chat with the cats while I am cooking (I’m not sure what we are talking about). 

7:30: I sit down with my pocket calendar and open my email. Every day is different, and I have to see what is on the schedule for today – no three hours seminars today, woohoo! I check emails from the night before and come up with a game plan. I look at the clock, I’ve got half an hour before my roommate, another PhD student, and I were going to head out to campus. I remember to start my day with meditation. I feed the dog and make coffee for my roommate as we head out the door. Once on campus, I plug my laptop into my monitor and keyboard, set up on my desk between walls of newspaper clippings and a coffee machine that will be gurgling soon. My committee chair has sent me another book to read – I scan through the introduction and file it appropriately on the growing list of things that are relevant to my dissertation that I’ve yet to read. 

9:30: I switch gears and check in on my baby – the High School Philosophy Summer Camp that I am organizing (check it out). We are setting up a week of workshops to talk about how to disagree productively. Born out of a passion to help high school students learn to think, this year’s theme comes at a time when disagreement rules our relationships. We hear it everywhere: If you disagree with someone, then you should hate them. The camp is designed to bring together high school students and question that claim. What could disagreement look like? How do we respect people that disagree with us? Now all that is left is to get the word out to those that would be interested. I’m contacting local high schools, organizations, and libraries, setting up times to go visit those high schools and talk to the students, and printing out fliers to give to the teachers. 

11: I surrender to course work, dive into articles and books for my seminars coming up this week. I don’t read nearly as much as I planned to, too busy chatting with the other people in the office and thinking about lunch. I’ll heat up my fried rice and eat it while I’m reading. 

12PM: I head to the class that I am a TA for this semester. I smile as I listen to students ask the same enthusiastic questions I asked years ago. I talk with some excited undergrads after class and head back to the office. When I get back, it’s back to reading, for an hour or so, till I notice my brain starting to slow down. Time for my afternoon nap. I unfold the sleeping mat under my desk, trade my boots out for my hand-knitted office slippers, and set a 25 minute timer. I give my brain a break and doze off. When the timer goes off, I avoid the desire to set it again, and grab another cup of coffee instead. I fish a snack out of my desk and take some light ribbing from my co-workers about how I never let myself get too uncomfortable, never too hungry or too tired. It’s true. 

3: Between conversations that pop up with the other PhD’s, I try to get some grading done. Grade a couple exams, argue about moral harms, grade a couple, talk about teaching strategies, grade a couple, chat about the reading for seminar tomorrow, etc. After an hour or so of this, I wash the day’s dishes in the department sink. After checking my email for a final time I close up my computer. I will not be working again until tomorrow morning. Back to the car and back to the house, we keep talking philosophy all the way home. I put on a pot of rice and make dinner, Pinakbet (a filipino stew), and sit down to eat with my roommate. 

6: I take off for a late cup of coffee with a friend. We hang out by ourselves for a while catching up on what the week has brought and what we are thinking about, and then go to meet up with more friends and spend the evening together. We talk about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness; hanging around, chatting, and laughing until it gets cold (for the desert that is). 

9:30: I return home to chat with my roommate once more. I make a list in my pocket calendar of all the things I am realizing I forgot to do today, and look ahead to see when the next time is that I can take off and spend some time outside the city. When 10:30 rolls around, I can hardly keep my eyes open, and I head to bed.