out.

[rax]

Just left graduate school. Still have to do some paperwork but that's it. I will have the option of returning next semester, but most likely won't.

Apparently the amount of time that I am willing to work full-time and attend school full-time is: Five years and one week. You know what, that's pretty fucking good. I'll take it. There are things that would be worth burning myself down further for. This program is not one of them. 

To do:

• paperwork to finalize leaving
• drown self in pokemon over weekend
• spend some time making my house the place I am living in and not the place I am surviving in
• ???

I'm not glad this was the right thing to do. But it was the right thing to do, and I'm glad I did it.

Comments

[merin-chan.livejournal.com]

Let me add to the chorus of support and say: way to go! Congratulations for persisting in grad school and work as long as it made sense, and even bigger congratulations for realizing when it tipped the scales from "hard but worth it" to "counterproductive and possibly self-destructive." No grad program is worth burning out over. We're all told that. But it takes courage, clarity, and honest insight into your own needs to perceive when the scale is unbalanced and act to set it right again. You've done just that, where many have failed and paid for it. I'm proud to know you even indirectly, and hope you keep working on interesting intellectual stuff in the freedom of your own time.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Thank you, seriously, and I am hoping to. I don't know if I will do the independent scholar thing or just blog more or what. But my brain is this shape now, for better or for worse. :)

[lindseykuper]

This is a really good comment!