A Matter Of Course

[alexakaruda]

The power went out along my grid, around midday, while I was eating my lunch at home. It was on long enough for me to check my email, but it cut out before I was able to check the location of the Dissertation Preparation Workshop I had pre-registered to attend this afternoon. My laptop has a battery, of course, but the internet doesn't work

Comments

[se7on]

Нда.. Неихо так высрался. respect.

[sapphire_hime]

To tell you the truth, I was terrified when we were given The Talk during the proseminar course. There are only two other people who have just started their first MA year in my program, and my professors tend to forget that we are not all on doctoral level ^_^; The thing is, we all have to start somewhere, right?

[impishlaugh]

Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. You have no idea how much I fear this. And the fear has gotten ten times worse since Matt and I broke up

[wash_it_out]

Eek, Abby, I'm scared too! I leave Saturday morning for Seattle to visit U of W, and right now I'm just looking at getting a Master's degree and then teaching high school, but there's always this little voice in the back of my mind saying, "Come on, wouldn't you like to be Dr. Payne? And if you're going to stick around for 2 more years, why not stick around for 3 more after that?" So I'll probably end up going for a PhD. But it's such a HUGE commitment, and the thought of living and breathing a dissertation for that long is terrifying. I've seen how the grad students at Vandy struggle with their work load, and it's not cool.

But they do find moments of fun and silliness in between the hours at the library. And they're really into what they're studying, so it doesn't seem to be all bad. I love watching people geek out about Greek verbs. But the thought of having to put anything like having meaningful relationships or starting a family on hold until you're done is scary. I'll be old then! If I start when I'm 22, I'll be done

[tamunra]

Japanese can get pretty crazy. So can computer labs and the library, I would wager. You never know what will happen!

I think there has to be another way. I've been getting pretty depressed about the "professionalization workshops" we've been having. Most depressing was the one about getting grants and fellowships, because before you can do that, you have to produce something. Yesterday's was about getting a job, and that one was actually not depressing. Two of the new professors talked about how they hate networking (which I also tend to view as fake), and about how there's more than one way to go about a job search. I figure, if there's leeway in that, there has to be more than one approach to getting a Ph.D.

I feel like we shouldn't have to be as busy as we were as undergrads. We should be able to have a life outside of work, study, and dissertation. I've come to view free time as a human right! I refuse to have a stressed-out life, and I can't follow in the steps of the professors who do.