"If there is anything I could tell prospective lawyers it would be, don't go right out of undergrad. Don't even take just one year off. Do something else for at least 3 or 4 years. If you still want to go back, then you probably want it bad enough not to resent it before you're through."
I'd say that applies in science as well. (Mrs. Juicebox is exceptionally good at articulating things that I also am dealing with or thinking. Particularly in response to certain Dooce posts.) If there is anything I regret it would be coming to graduate school straight out of undergrad. I wasn't ready. No one is at 21. So I find myself cutting my time at UT short and still wondering if that nagging little voice is right about mastering out of the program being failure. Not to mention the mass amount of uncertainty in a large swath of things going on or about to occur in my life. Truly, though, I can't complain; I wound up in Austin and this city has been good enough to provide me with amazing friends and a million opportunites I haven't even begun to explore. I just wish I could shake that negative little voice.
thesis count: 32 pages, 61 citations, experiments in progress
21 Days for Good #ohSnapkitchen
11 years ago
2 comments:
There really should be some kind of warning out there that they hand you on your 21st birthday that says "Even though everyone is about to start saying that you have to pick a career right now--it isn't true. Cover your ears and go become a barista for a little while. Revisit this question when you've seen a little bit of the world."
I think there's a scene in Grey's where Callie says to someone that all doctors are emotionally retarded because they haven't done anything but study since they were 19. Maybe we could make a logo with a huge brain and a tiny little heart on it with a a big X that says "Don't let premature graduate school happen to you.."
What do you think? It might work, no?
I, for one, don't listen to little voices in my head...unless of course they occasionally bark and give fashion tips. Then I don't so much listen to them as drown them with nyquil and animal crackers. I'm sure you already know this though. Old hat and all.
What happened is gone. You're writing your past right now. Believe in what you write. You're the author after all.
cheers,
rd
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