Grad School Ruminations...

“Grad school is a confidence-killing daily assault of petty degradations. All of this is compounded by the feat that it is all for nothing; that you are a useful fool.” -Thomas Benton

To paraphrase the Hamlet soliloquy: To go to grad school or not to go, that is the question.....

Decisions, decisions! I have a hard time with little decisions, like ordering off a menu, so with a big decision looming I’m feeling just a little sense of panic.

Of course I would love to join the “student” ranks again. I’m a big believer in the Sherlock Holmes premise: “Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.” -Arthur Conan Doyle

So, to make the learning and lessons of life more “official” by signing on to work towards a masters degree sounds pretty exciting. But also a little nerve wracking.

For instance, I earned my BA in 1981 which was exactly 30 years ago. That’s a big gap to suddenly, in 2011, get on the MA tract.

I remember some of those grandma-returns-to-college ladies in university classes. If memory serves I encountered two types. One type was a little pretentious, certain that wisdom came with age, so naturally they knew far more than the rest of us 20somethings. They were annoying enough that I’ll go out of my way to never assume I know any more than anyone else merely because of advanced age.

The second type is best described by this one older woman in a couple of literature classes my senior year. She was very selective about ever spouting off theories, answers, or observations. She usually deferred to the rest of us nitwits. But, when she added something to our class discussion it was calculated, thoughtful, and incredibly wise. Her careful discretion is a better role model for an old lady fitting into the collegiate crowd.

Yes, the option of going back to school sounds delightful to this aging but wannabe student. Now I just need to muster up the courage and stamina to return to the Ivory Tower after a very very long absence!

“It is never to late to be what you might have been.” -George Eliot