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votes
For those getting ready to go back to school: how do you feel about it?
The question is open to anyone attending any level of school in any capacity.
How are you feeling?
What are you excited about?
What are you nervous about?
What are your goals?
What are you hoping to get out of your education?
Warning: Whiny school-related sadposting
I go back to university at the end of the month and I'm far from excited. I've got the same mental health issues, I'm going for a degree I don't care about (and don't have an alternative thing to say "fuck it" and go for instead, this is my last semester with classes I have any genuine interest in, I'm about to run into a lot more hands-on material in the field I don't care about and am awful at, everyone I care about is leaving soon, and I expect another major breakdown to happen very quickly. I've got a lot of problems that seem like obvious things to solve (and are) but which don't really solve the permanent reason why it's hell: There's nothing I can imagine doing where I wouldn't be horribly depressed. There is nothing I'd feel okay doing, let alone a dream of something I'd want to do. So now I wonder: If it's pointless hell either way, why did I choose the option that I have to pay for?
All I'm really positive about is my housing situation, which will be much more friendly to the needs of a very anxious trans girl like me. I'm with my best friend and two other friends, with one of them also being trans...which I think will help me a lot. I was alone last semester, which gave me some needed security but obviously lacks the support which you get with others. I essentially did not speak other than in class and when my parents visited.
Maybe a bit morbid, but my goal is literal survival. That's it.
So just quit, goddamn. Maybe if college were free then I could understand, but you're probably paying around a minimum of 20,000 dollars, just to do something you don't want to do anyways.
There are plenty of minimum wage jobs that will pay you to do something you don't want to do instead of the other way around.
Take a year off, get a job where you can do something creative in your off time. Get an entry level job in a field you'd like to be in. Get a bunch of jobs in a bunch of fields. Try to get into management at a fast food place or something to see if you like that.
Just don't pay a college to waste a year of your life.
Sorry to hear this is your situation. It mirrors my own university experience in a lot of ways, and I wish I could offer you some sage wisdom or a salve from the perspective of hindsight. I will say that the friends and queer community I had during college were instrumental to me making it through. It sounds like you have a similar support system, and that's a wonderful thing.
If you ever need support here or just need to vent, don't hesitate to reach out.
l've had a summer job at a company l might later intern at, and it's so much fun l just don't want to go back to uni life. It's a startup that works with an incredibly promising biopolymer based on simple starting materials and processes, which is:
l really want to continue working on this since it's just a cool job where you get to do everything from chemistry to mechanical engineering.
It's my secondary higher education, will be 26 by the time l finish and am really done with it. l'd like to start working and have some consistency to my schedule and no exams l need to study (and forget) for.
Good luck dude! Sounds like you've got some solid experience under your belt already. Keep up the good work and it will fly by in no time.
It's refreshing to hear someone so energized by the work that they're doing. I'm burning out of my job as are many people I know, so your enthusiasm is wonderful to see. I'm glad you're loving what you're doing, and I hope that it can turn into a fulfilling career for you!
Not being flippant, it's the truth.
I am not looking forward to it at all. I am working a part time job at the same time since last year, so I know it's no problem to do work and school at the same time, but I will miss the free time so much again. I love being able to wake up at almost my ideal time and to come home from work early enough that I can still do whatever I want in the day. But it still isn't that bad. I did it for two semesters already, so why could I not do it again?
And in a certain way it's kind of good. When I spend all the time at work and school and than doing projects and learning and stuff for school in the small amount of time at home, there's basically no time left for being sad, feeling lonely and thinking about how shitty everything is. I certainly wouldn't have time for a relationship anyway, so it's good that I can't find one.
I don't even really need the money that much from work and it doesn't even pay too well, I mainly do it just because I want the experience. If I can get some experience while doing school, I hope when I get my degree I will get a good job that pays really well, I can move out and everything will be ok. Of course I told myself that everything will be much better when I start university. Before that I told myself it will all be better when I finish the school year and so on. And looking back I think some things actually got better, so I hope in a few years I will be looking back, into the past, thinking I did a pretty good job.
I am not too scared of the actual classes at school, I am fairly certain that I can pass most of them without too many problems. The only class I have failed so far is because of some unbeliavably stupid drama that makes me so angry to just think about. I am really hoping nothing similar to that happens again.
So I'm beginning my MA in Linguistics in October.
Ecstatic, fucking ecstatic! I love being a student, and I love learning stuff. I also studied hard for the better part of a year to achieve this, coming from a different BA; so it is glory after months of work for me, which adds to the happines I feel about this.
All the stuff I'll learn, the research career I'll have begun, the new people I'll meet, the lessons, the experiences, the new city I'll move to, the life skills I'll gain, all the fun and joy I'll have.
Up until this point I lived with my family in our private home and in the same city (Istanbul). Now I'll move out, move to a new city, start working, and worry about rent and bills and stuff. These are big changes and they are both exciting and worrisome at the same time.
Also, my department is good, and there are nice parts to the school, but the bureaucracy is fucked, of the kind that can induce nervous breakdowns.
It is a big campus university, I'd rather one that's in the middle of the city instead. Ankara is a city in the middle of Asia Minor's steppes, the distances are long, the areas are vast. Stuff I'm not used to in my total city life in Istanbul albeit not in the city centre.
I want to become a linguist and complete my master's as an excellent student. I basically want my outcomes to be remarkable and that they give me the chance to continue on to a PhD in a still better uni, possibly abroad.
IDK if it'll be possible, but I also want to write a thesis that'll have some impact on the subject matter rather than just a 100 page proof that I know some stuff and can do research. I mean, I want it to count, to include proper, relevant discoveries. Not something that really happens in master's theses, but we'll see.
First of all, I want to know if I can do this: if the life as a researcher is suitable for me. There are a few points of friction, mainly about participation in a hierarchy: I'm not made for it, I can't take the "initiation" (i.e. abuse of inexperienced colleagues and subordinates making them do all the grunt work or out right mobbing-like stuff that some seem to accept to be a part of it) some see inevitable, I am really averse to taking orders or responding to superiors (which is a term I hate). Basically, I am hard to work with in a traditional, hierarchical, kinda toxic power structure. So, here, I'll get to see if it will be like that, in which case I'll also observe how I'll respond to it.
Apart from that, I want a good grasp of Linguistics, and a good foundation for my PhD. I'm a newcomer to the field, so it'll take some work to become excellent at it, but I don't want that sort of "gap" to carry over to after my first year here. Ideally, as I defend my thesis, I shouldn't be behind anyone who also did their BA in the field.
So this is my kinda situation with my oncoming return to school. Overall, I'm happy and comfortable with it, but it is not all glee, there are sharp edges and there are problems I'm having to deal with (all this moving out and finding a job stuff is tiring). Yet, I am glad I'm doing this!
I've got mixed feelings. On one hand I genuinely enjoy learning and the social experience of going to class. On the other hand I am really disproportionately dreading the lack of free time. I'm doing one class per semester working on an associate degree, and I've already been working on this for two or three years. It's just kind of tiring because it feels like being stuck in the middle; the degree isn't worth much and it takes an extreme effort to get it. And honestly, I'm mostly doing this for me at this point.
I have kind of abandoned the idea of persuing a career actually focused on programming. The job hunt is painful and I don't think that an associate's degree is going to make a big difference.
Not "going back to school" in the strict sense, but 6 years after graduating, I'm taking my first new class. My job subsidizes professional development, so I decided to take them up on it for a design class. I will probably already know a good portion of the material from experience (my career thus far has definitely been "fake it 'til you make it"), but it will be good to finally get some actual formal training.
Not too nervous about it, but it will be interesting to take a class for the first time with people who aren't only in my age-range and who are coming from all different places in life. It will have a different dynamic. Not looking forward to losing precious free time either, but that's just me being lazy.
I was able to apply for Uni just last week, unfortunately I won't find out if I've been accepted to any until February.
So while I'm excited about the thought of furthering my education I'm anxious that I won't get in. So I'm trying to put that out of my mind until I really can't.
I'm currently working as an Enrolled Nurse in aged care, I have this feeling or it's more like a need inside me, that I should be in mental health. I would prefer to have the bachelor degree as there are more extensive classes I can attend before going to that field and I would be less limited with the nursing care I could provide.
I've been in aged care for close to 10 years now, I'm feeling like my clinical skills aren't fully being used so it's time to move on. I'll stay where I am because it's stable hours, once the Uni degree is complete (being positive that I'll get in) I'll move on. If all goes well it's 3 more years.