Let's talk about our feelings

[Phoebecaulfield]

Let's assume that we all have good reasons for wanting to go to grad school. We've all heard the sermonizing, don't go to avoid the real world. 

 

Yeah yada yada, I genuinely want to pursue my area of study (English) and will work hard and am aware of the obstacles I will face in academia. ... I mean, anyone who doesn't do their homework on grad school or academic life shouldn't be pursuing it in the first place. It's the easiest homework any of us will have for the next 2-7 years... Am I right? 

 

But when I think back to my undergraduate years... Or when it's 11 pm on Valentine's day and I'm browsing my emails in my inbox from two years ago... 

 

I really miss the accessibility to professors more than anything. That made me feel so warm and fuzzy. You know, being able to email your favorite professor then meet with them the next day to get solid advice about your life. They can be such great mentors. 

 

Academia is an amazing field in that your career mentors are literally the same people who you spend four years with in college. You don't have that in any other profession, unless you meet a professor who happens to have professional experience in what you want to do, or if you are doing a trade apprenticeship. 

 

I mean, I felt like I learned more about what it takes to be an effective  English professor from my college courses than I really did about English. 

 

And the number one thing I miss about college is the accessibility to my mentors. 

 

It's very weird that now I can only communicate with them via email, and obviously because they are very busy people, I very rarely contact any of them and when I do, it is a very brief exchange. It's disconcerting. Logically, I understand, but I can't help feeling very sad about it. 

 

I've gotten strangely attached to my teachers since grade school, so this might be just me, but can anyone else relate?

 

One of the things I'm most looking forward to in grad school is forming these professional relationships with academics, and if I'm lucky enough to one day become a professor, I'm going to really dig getting to know my students. (I hope. Unless they all come at me with their hologram iPhones and Google goggles demanding higher grades and that I import the exam answers directly into their brains via laser usb or some technology thing. I don't know, I'm in English.)

 

[FestivusMiracle]

11 PM on Valentine's Day and checking e-mails...I wish I could say my Valentine's Day was more exciting but it was pretty much the same. How lame lol

[Phoebecaulfield]

Haha, yeah. I haven't left the house since Wednesday, except to shovel snow. I've read the entire internet twice, I think. I actually forgot it was even the weekend. I feel like frankenstein's monster, banished from society. SOS. Need chocolate.

[FestivusMiracle]

Ha well if you eventually find yourself in grad school, you may get used to the feeling of being banished from society with all the required reading. I'd wait til tomorrow for the chocolate. It's gonna be super cheap!