I graduated from college (university) 25 years ago today.
One of the many great things about the internet is making friends of many different ages, more so than you probably would in your regular life. I have blog-friends and online friends who think I'm very young, and others who look at me as a senior. Today I'm inclined to feel senior-ish.
Twenty-five years ago today. Wow.
7 comments:
I'm coming up on a round-number-year anniversary myself this year, but not the same one. It's kind of crazy to look back. What do you think of your university years now?
I made a pact with myself -- if I was going to leave academics and not do my doctorate, then I was going to keep reading and keep writing. I'm satisfied that I've been able to keep certain academic values alive, certain mental muscles stretched.
I imagine you must feel the same, with all the work you do and with the way your day job is set up to allow you time to keep a professional writing career going. I have infinite respect for that!
Can I still congratulate you? :)
David, sure, why not. :)
M@, it is crazy to look back! My dear friend NN went to the reunion, so we've been talking and emailing about it.
I have mixed feelings about my university years. I'll come back to comment on it, or maybe do a post about it.
I know what you mean about the academic values and mental muscles. I don't feel I've done that. I feel I was much sharper and more analytical from the classroom/professor dynamic than I am now.
But I don't say that in a regretful sense, just as a fact. I also seriously considered graduate work (in literature), but when I decided against it, it was because I wanted a different lifestyle, to focus on different things, and I knew I'd be losing (or at least lessening) certain skills.
Thank you that respect. It was a long road - building a writing career from nothing, figuring out how to support myself at the same time (there have been a lot of variations on that theme) - and I have to say, it's something I'm proud of.
You're in the same boat, so I hope you are proud of yourself, too. I think it's a major accomplishment.
I'd be interested to read a post about that, of course... nudge...
I'm in the same boat, of course; I've lost plenty of the sharpness and analytical skills I had in school. But I suspect that's a product of environment -- it's hard to have that mindset without being in academic surroundings, with other academics -- and also maturity. In general, I think people go to university when they're young for the same reason they go into the army when they're young: only the young are stupid and naive enough to take it seriously.
(This is not to disparage mature students or lifelong academics. I just mean it would be really difficult to have the same attitude to university in adulthood as in one's late teens and early twenties.)
Thank you; I am proud of what I've accomplished so far, and I'm looking forward to accomplishing more. I had "publish a novel before I'm 40" as one of my life goals in high school. An old friend reminded me of that at my book launch last year. That's what I'm proud of -- that I have become the person I wanted to be in my most idealistic and naive days.
Hmm, perhaps it's better left for a real-life conversation. I don't know if it's interesting or coherent enough to post. :)
For now I'll just say that if I had known at all the person I was to become, I would have chosen a very different kind of university. We're asked to make those choices when we know so little about what we truly want out of life, at least that was the case for me.
I'm grateful for the university education I had, but by the time I graduated, it was not what I would have chosen.
Re "novel before you're 40", that's really cool. Lucky for me I never had those deadline type of goals. Mine have been fluid and ever-changing. Impudent Strumpet did a cool post about this, something like the key to happiness is open-ended goals. (I'm probably butchering it.) But that attitude has helped me feel more satisfied - kept me oriented more towards the process.
Off to an interview now...
Congratulations :D
Here is to a bright future.
Thanks, David. To you, too. :)
I guess none of us are ever too old for a bright future.
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