My biggest problem at the moment is telling people at school. I'm basically committing High Blasphemy against the God of Academia by quitting grad school to go have babies, and most of the people in my department are both extreme feminists and very dismissive of all non-academic pursuits, so I am really nervous about telling people. I've told a couple of friends, who reacted well enough, and I told the person in charge of teaching assignments that I wouldn't be back next semester (but didn't tell her why), so I'm not completely in the closet, but I still need to tell the head of graduate studies and the guy in charge of my particular field of study.
It's the last one that I'm most worried about. I'm a Germanic medievalist, and there aren't many of us around. At my school, there are four of us right now, which is great because it means we can almost fill any class we want to have (five students are required for a class, so we only need to dig up one more). Unfortunately, one of us is graduating this semester and I'm leaving, so that leaves the medievalists with only two students, which means they're kind of at the mercy of the department, so my leaving hurts the program in a very real way.
It doesn't help that the very first day I met this guy he told me about a promising female student that he had who quit to 'go be her husband's wife.' So I've got a feeling he's not going to be particularly pleased with my news.
Aside from the awkwardness involved in telling people, I am actually not upset at all to be leaving. I've been in school for close to a decade (and for practically no reason - there are no jobs out there for Germanic medievalists), and I am incredibly sick of it. It'll be nice to join the real world, and it'll be especially nice to quit doing the long-distance thing and go settle down with Noah (although, with him being in the Navy and all, I can't realistically expect this to be the last time we'll be apart). And, to be perfectly honest, I will be delighted to stop being surrounded by ridiculous intellectual types. I know technically I'm one of them, but they really get on the nerves after a while...
And who knows, maybe after things settle down I'll even have enough time to bake some decent pie again. I miss my oven.
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4 comments:
UH. Screw them. Academic pursuits are all well and good, but you are POPULATING THE WORLD!! Way more important. ;o)
Haha, thanks, I kind of agree. I figure raising a few smart kids is probably better for the world's collective IQ anyway than reluctantly writing some research papers that no one will ever read.
I tried to finish just my bachelor's several times. Then I was like, FORGET IT! I want babies. Plus the hubs makes enough money. I can always go get those life skills I keep hearing so much about once my kids are older. Until then, this is my career.
I think that the arrogance is largely a medievalist thing...the ones at Western are the same way. By comparison, only a couple of people in my department are, while most are legitimately nice, caring people. Good luck telling them though.
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