Postponing Grad School

In one of my more recent posts, I had written about my decision to not attend law school. Maybe I will change my mind in a few years. Of course, it's not just law school I am avoiding for now. Though professors have tried to convince me to apply for Ph.d's, I've decided to stay away from grad school in general. While I know I will probably have to go back to school to further my career, I figure the best thing I can do right now is to take time off.

First, I am burned out from school. My last semester, while I did well in most classes, I had a hard time forcing myself to do work. Granted, through high school and college, I was the girl who could do papers the night before and kick ass on them (easy to do when the topics include Springsteen, the environment, and the Holy Mother). However, it was hard for me to become excited about my classes. Don't get me wrong, they were interesting ones and I ended up enjoying my SIS textbooks for summer reading. At the same time, it was hard for me to even prepare for my music classes. I just wanted to be done. I'll admit, the one thing I'm looking forward to most is having my nights and weekends to myself next year.

Second, I'm not sure what I'd want to go to grad school for. Law school does appeal to me sometimes, especially international law and immigration law. However, that involves a huge commitment of my time, money, and an idea of where I want to live (yes, they hire you based on region). Also, I've been flirting with studying theology, peace and conflict resolution, international development, development management, public health, going back and studying music, music therapy, environmental politics/management. There are so many topics that capture my fancy. I know that I need more professional discernment before I can make the financial and intellectual commitment to take on more education.

For me, I know that I'm not ready for this decision. I want to work a few years, travel, volunteer, work on my languages, computer, and music skills, and see where life takes me. I don't want to go simply because of the economy and then find myself more in debt and completely clueless. I want to enjoy the fact that, for the first time in my life, no one is telling me what to do anymore. My life is my own to figure out. There is no feeling that could take me higher.