Friday Five
I am on my break. It is very lovely. I've read 2.5 books already, and I feel goooood about that. But here's a little Friday Five for a Saturday.
1. Did you enjoy your senior year of high school?
Yes, very much. Like one response I’ve already read, I went to 6th form college rather than staying on at my high school (which was dreadful, but luckily I was only there 3 years). College was a great interim step to uni, I made some good new friends, and it was mixed-sex which was a huge relief after an all-girls school. Plus, studying stuff I really loved (history, french and classical civilisations), with good teachers, and knowing I’d get into uni if I did anywhere near as well as I knew I could. I was a wreck in my early teens. This was the start of being so much better.
2. Did you have a senior trip (high school) and were you able to go on it.
No, it’s not a thing. In fact, I didn’t do a single school trip after the age of 12, though there were a couple I wish I had done. I really was a wreck, psychologically, and a fortnight in the USSR in 1989 would have been amazing but probably finished me off entirely.
3. Was graduating (from either high school or college/university) a big thing with your family or just another day?
High school graduation isn’t a thing here, or wasn’t. We did have a proper nightclub party sendoff, but no prom type stuff. (Two pairs of my friends coupled up at that party, with repercussions for the next ten years or so. The booze must have been good.) My university undergrad graduation was a bigger deal for me, and my parents did come down for it. But it wasn’t that huge a deal. My mum graduated when I was 17 and I remember that better: the speaker was Dennis Healey, who was probably the most famous person I’d been in the room with at that age, and he made the families attending applaud ourselves because supporting someone through graduating via evening classes is hard work. That, I remember!
Technically, I’ve graduated another three times since then, but I’ve never bothered to go to any of them. It’s not a big deal after the first one with your friends, except for the PhD, and I really hate those floppy hats, so I was never tempted. Besides, I’d been working for ages by the time graduation rolled around for that, and academic celebrations feel so far away by then.
4. What were you looking forward to the most after graduating from either high school or college/university?
I had absolutely no idea leaving college. Knew I wanted uni, couldn’t imagine a life after that. (Which probably explains quite how many degrees I accumulated.) After finally leaving uni for the last time with a PhD (which wasn’t the last, but my professional diploma was distance learning and a whole different thing, years later, while working), I really wanted a sensible job. One with set hours, and a salary, and not having to motivate yourself the whole time through months where no one really talked to you as you worked through mountains of documents. I did stay on teaching a bit, but I also did junior HR work for a year, 4 days pw, and that was so good for me.
5. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your graduating self?
Take. A. Breath. Do that MA, that’s fine, but don’t push yourself straight into a doctorate you’re not sure about just because it’s familiar ground and some supportive academics tell you you can do it. Someday, you will look back on that as a long, dumb gap year, and you will have an idea for a PhD you’d actually like to do. But nobody’s gonna fund you now, you twonk.
Weirdly, my graduating PhD self made mostly pretty good choices and moved into a much better career place. I think I’d just tell her not to panic so much about the future. It’s going to be a fun few years to come.
This entry was originally posted at https://bruttimabuoni.dreamwidth.org/931837.html. You can comment here or there as you please!
1. Did you enjoy your senior year of high school?
Yes, very much. Like one response I’ve already read, I went to 6th form college rather than staying on at my high school (which was dreadful, but luckily I was only there 3 years). College was a great interim step to uni, I made some good new friends, and it was mixed-sex which was a huge relief after an all-girls school. Plus, studying stuff I really loved (history, french and classical civilisations), with good teachers, and knowing I’d get into uni if I did anywhere near as well as I knew I could. I was a wreck in my early teens. This was the start of being so much better.
2. Did you have a senior trip (high school) and were you able to go on it.
No, it’s not a thing. In fact, I didn’t do a single school trip after the age of 12, though there were a couple I wish I had done. I really was a wreck, psychologically, and a fortnight in the USSR in 1989 would have been amazing but probably finished me off entirely.
3. Was graduating (from either high school or college/university) a big thing with your family or just another day?
High school graduation isn’t a thing here, or wasn’t. We did have a proper nightclub party sendoff, but no prom type stuff. (Two pairs of my friends coupled up at that party, with repercussions for the next ten years or so. The booze must have been good.) My university undergrad graduation was a bigger deal for me, and my parents did come down for it. But it wasn’t that huge a deal. My mum graduated when I was 17 and I remember that better: the speaker was Dennis Healey, who was probably the most famous person I’d been in the room with at that age, and he made the families attending applaud ourselves because supporting someone through graduating via evening classes is hard work. That, I remember!
Technically, I’ve graduated another three times since then, but I’ve never bothered to go to any of them. It’s not a big deal after the first one with your friends, except for the PhD, and I really hate those floppy hats, so I was never tempted. Besides, I’d been working for ages by the time graduation rolled around for that, and academic celebrations feel so far away by then.
4. What were you looking forward to the most after graduating from either high school or college/university?
I had absolutely no idea leaving college. Knew I wanted uni, couldn’t imagine a life after that. (Which probably explains quite how many degrees I accumulated.) After finally leaving uni for the last time with a PhD (which wasn’t the last, but my professional diploma was distance learning and a whole different thing, years later, while working), I really wanted a sensible job. One with set hours, and a salary, and not having to motivate yourself the whole time through months where no one really talked to you as you worked through mountains of documents. I did stay on teaching a bit, but I also did junior HR work for a year, 4 days pw, and that was so good for me.
5. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your graduating self?
Take. A. Breath. Do that MA, that’s fine, but don’t push yourself straight into a doctorate you’re not sure about just because it’s familiar ground and some supportive academics tell you you can do it. Someday, you will look back on that as a long, dumb gap year, and you will have an idea for a PhD you’d actually like to do. But nobody’s gonna fund you now, you twonk.
Weirdly, my graduating PhD self made mostly pretty good choices and moved into a much better career place. I think I’d just tell her not to panic so much about the future. It’s going to be a fun few years to come.
This entry was originally posted at https://bruttimabuoni.dreamwidth.org/931837.html. You can comment here or there as you please!