Hey, everyone! First post here... I tried to search around, and while I found some threads discussing how abyssmal the job market is and how everything in the English field is horrible ( ), I have a different sort of question.
A bit of background on me before I ask (skip to the bottom if you're not interested!): I am currently a high school English teacher at an urban charter high school. I graduated with a BSE in English in December of 2011, and I got hired at my current school six weeks out of graduation. I had a 3.98 GPA for my undergrad. This coming fall, I will start on my master's in English part time while still teaching.
Perhaps I'm jumping the gun, but there's a part of me that won't stop nagging. I want to pursue my studies full-time! I enjoy teaching high school, more or less, but I miss research, and I feel like I have more to do and contribute in academia. I've had undergrad professors encourage me to go on to a doctorate. I don't feel like my mental set entirely matches that of my current colleagues.
That said, naturally I enjoy being financially independent. ha! I also am not sure if I am just "that good" and did everything right to get a job right after graduation or what, but it's daunting to think about giving that up when the market in secondary ed is hardly better than that at the post-secondary level. In addition, if I were to go onto a PhD, I fairly have my heart set on Penn at the moment, and I recognize the incredible odds achieving that would take.
All that said, my questions are these: How did you decide to pursue a PhD? What motivated you to take that path instead of a "real" job? When did you commit to that decision mentally? And perhaps as an addendum, have you ever regreted it?
Thank you in advance!