I am currently sitting on the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria for the 3rd time in 3 weeks, bouncing back and forth between the island and the mainland as I try to finally settle into my new home in Vancouver. The constant back and forth was not the way that I had thought this was going to go, but then again, things never quite go the way that I planned them. Not to say that my life is overly difficult or anything, I know that. I am actually quite privileged and lucky with the opportunities I've had. But Murphy's Law seems to be more prevalent in my life than I would prefer. So while now I can look back at each phase and roll my eyes, even laughing at some things, the simple way never seems to happen.
I'm moving to Vancouver in order to attend Graduate School, and this is what my blog will be about. I know that this is going to be an insane and crazy time in my life, with absolutely nothing working out the way I expect. This isn't a complaint, by any means, but a way of life for a Graduate Student. I am friends with a few of them and watched what they went through, and have also heard stories related from professors, online blogs and forums, and family friends. This will be a recording of my own experience and hopefully I'll be able to pass on some of the things I've learned to others starting on this road as well.
I am the first member of my family, on either side, to go to Graduate School, and only the second to have a university degree after my father. I remember telling my parents that I was going to go in only my second year of university and the look on their face was a brilliant mix of confusion and dispair. I know there are tons of people out there who say that Grad school is a waste of time, effort, money, sanity, and ruins your social life and delays your experience in the job market for two years which, when you finally start looking for work, you are overqualified for. Hardly a flattering or encouraging picture for my future. But, you see, I don't really have a choice. I chose a field where you are unable to become employed unless you have, at minimum, a master's and ideally a PhD. I decided to devote myself to Classics, otherwise known as the study of the ancient Mediterranean world. Awesome, completely. I spend my days learning about Roman legions, Greek gods, and of course, the ancients' obsession with sex that makes today's culture look prudish. While I believe that these things are completely awesome and a great thing to devote my life to, employment is not exactly hopping. Hence, my decision to enter graduate school six years after I graduated from High School. While my friends are all getting careers, married, and thinking about having kids, I packed all of my stuff up yet again, moved for the eighth time in six years, and settled into an apartment-style residence complex at UBC.
A friend once told me that she had asked one of her TA's if he regretted working for his Master's, and he answered while broodily staring out the window into the rain "I'm alone, all the time, surrounded by books." This has resounded with me for the last few years, but instead of making me depressed, it always brings a smile to my face as I remember that all Classics students, inevitably, end up alone in a room full of books for hours on end thinking about guys who have been dead for two thousand years.
So if you're still here at the end of this post with me, bear with me! I will hopefully keep up to this blog regularly and relate to you my stumbling through Vancouver, UBC, grad school, and entering my mid-twenties where I'm going to be living in this weird nether world of still being a student, but also being an adult.
No comments:
Post a Comment