My college/university notes are finally gonzo
For the past 10 years, I've been moving around with my five boxes of college/university notes. Now that we're moving to SF, every box counts. It's a waste of money to move those boxes with us, again. Today, my goal was to be down to one box.
Interestingly, I feel liberated. I don't feel one bit of nostalgia. I am slightly annoyed actually. I am annoyed at the ton of useless stuff I had to research, study, and write over the course of my student career. Now that I have been working for five years, I wish university would have prepared me more for "real life". I know liberal arts are meant to develop critical thinking and yada yada yada, but how much critical thinking does a person really need? Very few courses I took (like five) are useful to my career. I can't help but to think how much better I would be in my job if I had only studied relevant subjects.
I first felt annoyed, then bitter as I was reading some of the feedback provided by teaching assistants. Holy sense of superiority. Dude, it's just a graduate degree that you have (and not even a completed one for most!), not a Nobel prize. University is really good at making grad students believe that they are exceptionally smart. Once they start working, they realize that they really aren't all that. At best, they're among the smart ones.
So I am done. Down to one box, disillusioned, and with a very low tolerance for uselessness!
2 comments:
Hah, it's so funny, I remember being absolutely terrified of grad students when I was an undergrad. They seemed so much smarter than me and it made me feel like grad school was totally unattainable. Damn! Now that I'm there, I can't believe I ever fretted about it.
University will never teach you about real life. They have one goal: to turn you into an academic.
I threw out my university notes a long time ago, and I never looked back. It took a while (and it still is) for me to convince hubby of doing the same. Have fun with packing!
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