Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Sitch-ee-a-tion

Sorry about the cryptic and infrequent posts as of late.

Basically, for many many reasons, I am considering not taking any more grad classes after this semester is over. I'm not trying to be vague. I'm just trying to hold back while simultaneously venting (very hard to do).

I have about 4 classes left to take before I have the degree, and that is a major reason to continue. I truly believe in my ability to get it done.

However, that isn't the question I am struggling with. The question is: "at what cost?"
because grad school is taking a lot of attention away from areas in my life that are way more important to me. Family, Church, School, Personal life, TV, etc. (only half-kidding about the last one, even less so now that I have DVR).

So even though I know I can do it, I just don't know that it's worth doing. The degree it will give me really won't open any doors for me that I particularly care to open. I just want to be in a classroom and the opportunities available to me post-degree are mostly outside of the classroom. Meanwhile, it's actually taking me away from my own classroom by forcing me to concentrate so much time on it.

The answer seems pretty obvious to me when written out like this, but it has taken me quite some time to reason it out in my brain. Meanwhile, my pride is still telling me I can do it all and to go for it. I don't know how to deal with quitting.

Furthermore, I had been planning on continuing at least for another year. And I had put certain decisions off until that time approached. If I quit, those decisions no longer need to be delayed, and that itself is putting a lot of undue stress on the situation.

Could you just tell me what to do? What decisions I need to make? Or at least ship me a crystal ball? Thanks...

2 comments:

deliveredjude said...

what about 1 class per semester or per year? or 1 class per summer?

that's about as much brainstorming as I have...says the man COMPLETELY sick of grad school.

Praying for you.

TenaciousT said...

I currently AM taking one class per semester, while teaching and volunteering in a youth group. Both are more important to me than grad school, but both are getting slighted b/c of grad school.