Grad school balance, check!

Grad school is set up to be one of the most unbalanced times of your life. In my experience, to be a successful academic, you must devote roughly 85% of your time to school/work, maybe 10% to family/friends/significant other, and if your lucky about 5% to yourself. This past summer a few friends and myself decided to break this unnatural balance and spend some time doing something we absolutely loved - we made a zombie movie.  For about 5 months we spent roughly every Sunday either in production meeting (usually at a favorite bar) or filming. we recruited an all-grad-student cast and spent only about $50 on costumes, make-up, and props. We ended up premiering the film at Cine on Halloween and had one of the best nights of our entire lives. I am 100% confident that no school related activity would have been that much fun or felt as rewarding. If interested, check out our local film, Dammit Zombie. Enjoy!

Also, as an aside, we were still able to maintain some of a balance during filming. Shortly after completion 2 of us passed written and oral comps and the other defended her thesis and completed her masters degree. Maybe we should add extra curriculars to the grad school requirement?