Journal shankar2k's Journal: My Neglected Education 1
In December of 2002, I found myself single in Urbana. It was the weekend, and normally I would have gone to Bloomington, Indiana, but now I had nothing better to do, so I hung around my cooperative house.
A couple of my housemates were in the living room gossipping about other people in the house. I found this highly amusing and so I asked them what was the gossip about me. They shrugged and said the only joke was that I was never around. That was when I realized that I didn't really know my housemates. I moved into the coop to meet people, but I hadn't really got to know anyone. In fact, I had been in Urbana for one-and-a-half years and I still didn't know much about it besides the strip malls on Prospect Ave.
Around that time I resolved that if there was ever an opportunity for me to get out and meet people, I would try my hardest to go out and do it. It worked. I know people in Urbana and Champaign and I've come to appreciate the twin cities very much.
But I didn't come to grad school to socialize. Lately, it has hit me that now I need to focus on my research and my education. In the same way I neglected Urbana, I have been neglecting my education. I've gone through life very much a follower. I went to school and got good grades because that was what was expected of me, and I did much the same in college, and I got into grad school for much the same reason. I've struggled because I've been waiting for someone or something to lead me in the "right" direction.
There is no "right" direction. More importantly, the only way I'm going to get anywhere is to be more proactive about my life. I need to become a leader, at least of myself. I have to prioritize.
I'm not saying I'm not going to have a social life. I desperately need people and social interaction or I would go insane. But I don't think that when I graduate and go find a job they are going to care that I mediated conflicts between people about how loud they play their music. It's time for me to grow up.
good luck (Score:2)