She's Not a Girl Who Misses Much

Here's my class line-up for Spring 2008:

Tuesday:
Developmental Psychology
Experimental Design and Analysis
Psychology of Learning

Thursday:
British Literature 1900-1945


Riveting, eh? Three psych classes in one day, how lucky can a girl get?

So I've had a meeting with Dr. Hottie Professor, and he asked me if I planned on going to grad school (I said yes) and what particular concentration I had in mind for a career in psychology.

Later that night I thought about it, and all ruminations ended at one place: Do I even want to be in school? Life is for living, do I want to spend half of my lived life in school to immediately emerge, struggle to obtain a "prestigious" position, settle down and eventually die?

I'm sure almost every student dwells on this at some point or another, but I know for certain that I'm (still) in school more or less to appease my parents and grandparents, because it's not really my expectations I'm trying to live up to. Yes, I like the study of psychology. Yes, I'm good at it. But do I want to make a career, a day-in-day-out grind out of what I love and hope it doesn't ruin me in the end?

Every time I stop and speculate as to what will make me happy in life, it's college- and career- and graduate school-oriented. Maybe I'm completely missing the point.

I want to learn. But I don't necessarily have to drive myself into poverty learning in an academic institution.

What would make me most happy out of life is learning as much as I possibly can before I die.

I want to salsa dance, play bass guitar, play bongo drums, do yoga, paint, make pottery, meditate, travel. My ideal life would be learning a skill until I've mastered it, then learning something else, and so on.

How will I break this news to my parents? That what will make me happy ultimately will not make me money? Why do the two need to be hand-in-hand?

I need someone to talk to.