Wednesday, October 20, 2004

grad school

Wow, there is such a general negativity doing the rounds about graduate study and academia in general. This is one article advising enthusiastic graduates of all the possible problems with the whole process, and it is only one of several. Is it really likely that by continuing on my present path, I am toying with self-destruction? perhaps. But quite honestly, I want to do this so badly, I'm prepared to risk it. Just hope I can avoid becoming embittered.

I really want to feel like I am doing some good, and contributing to my society in a valuable way, and when my research turns up results as interesting as it has been recently, I feel like I am. Tell you what, though, I hate the publishing process, and yet I can think of few other ways of making what I do accessible to the broader public. Perhaps this is the way to do it. Maybe blogs are the ultimate way of getting what I do out into the public sphere. And yet, with absolutely no traffic up to this point, I am beginning to wonder...

Still, if this all falls down around me, at least I can conduct choirs. I'm really getting quite good at that. And what makes me particularly smug about it is that someone who offered to help me learn that spent half a year trying to convince me that I was useless at it. well ha, ha, miss embittered school teacher, I will not be trod on! positive thinking, naively romantic do-gooders still get it right more of the time.

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