A year ago today I had The Talk with my advisor and walked away from graduate school. It was a terrifying and relieving experience, and I haven’t regretted it for a day. I never would have guessed that a year later I’d have a job, a blog, and a love for french braiding. This journey has been amazing.
Quitting grad school is just like this, every day. Except on days when it’s -10 degress in Iowa. Which is most days, lately.
I and a couple other post-academic grad school quittas are setting up a fabulous, free, catch-all website for people quitting grad school or leaving academia, and we need your help. If you quit grad school — if you’re here because you’re thinking about quitting grad school – please contribute to the site or the book. It’s the nicest, easiest, non-academic-iest writing you’ll do and you will help out so many people dying to hear stories from others who’ve walked this road. Head on over and consider sending me a short idea for an essay (as long or as short as you like!) for the site or e-book. We’re hoping to have all of the submissions gathered by Feb. 1st, so get on that already!
Your timing couldn’t have been better for this post! As I am reorganizing and preparing to apply for jobs in the next couple of weeks (when it all starts) I find the fear creeping back in. “What if I leave my CC teaching job and I”m unhappy in an 8-5?” “What if the people are MEAN to me?” “What if I can’t take any time off….ever?” And on and on and on.
I’m thinking I’m going to have to promise myself that I can crawl back into academia if I get scared, just to get me out the door. Still, after working in a law office as a paralegal for a few weeks over break, despite the fact that I don’t really want to work in law, I DO like an office environment and I DID have energy to do other things when I got home. Imagine that?!
Please tell me that an 8-5 is not like what I”m doing now “all day”, but rather it’s a new world where post acs can be successful and happy! Even the most motivated among us can get scared when the time comes.
Academia feels safe because it’s familiar, and there is a transition, but there are definite plusses on the other side. It’s just dealing with the unknown. I think everyone in an office environment wonders if what they do all day is really “who they are” and that may at times feel uncomfortable. I know that some people in my office feel pangs for the writing, art, or other pursuits that are not being pursued fully because of time in the office. At the same time, they can identify as writers/artists and not feel any guilt about having those pursuits be central to their lives. I know I feel like more of a “real” writer now than I was able to in grad school, and I feel like my internal life is richer now, even though I work 35 hours at a desk.
That’s helpful and your feelings of better self expression seem to be the consensus. Thanks for your reply.
Never been a quitter, but for some odd reason I feel really proud about quitting grad school. I am frightened about the unknown out there (like finding a real job), but I feel like Dorothy who has looked behind the curtain of academia and found nothing really magnificent on the other side. I went into grad school because I loved political science (which my Phd was to be in), but found all I was doing was a bunch of math, like endless amount of useless math. The field is so stat intensive that they are producing a lot of mindless grad students who only know how to do math, but have no idea about great political thought so as to interpret the math. So I feel like I am not learning anything and when you come that point, you have to wonder why you are even still part of the program. A smart person must then choose to readjust her sails and find new places to sail. So I’m packing my bags and taking a different path. It’s scary, but all new adventures sometimes are and every new beginning comes from some sort of an ending, even if it isn’t a pretty ending.
Congrats, Sam!