I don't like working.
Well that's not true, I'm actually a pretty hard worker when I put my mind to it. What I don't like is to work on someone else's terms. In school, I would never seriously start assignments in class. Class and outside life was for socializing, not for work. Fast forward a couple of years, I'm in college still doing homework and assignments primarily at home. I just can't focus in class or in a library. Fast forward even further, I'm halfway through a Masters Degree, with a Co-op job lined up for the summer.
The more I think about my future employment, the more I dread it. Won't I feel trapped? The fact that I live so far away from work will force me to leave the house at 7:20 AM and to come back around 6:30 PM if I'm lucky. This is the fate of many of my friends and classmates. Why can't I just accept it? Why don't I want to conform? Further thinking about this has made me realize that many of my life choice were based on my desire to not work the typical office schedule. My decision to go to graduate school, my desire to become a professor, my decision to work as a TA/RA instead of getting a job outside of university.
I have no real motivation to do research or to become a scientist (I sometimes think I'm hardly curious or patient enough for such large endeavors). The only things that attract me in academia are teaching and a more or less flexible schedule. Now, I'm starting to wonder if these two elements are sufficient to motivate me to pursue a Ph.D. in the future. In order to obtain a flexible schedule and a job that involves teaching/training, I'm almost certain that I need not spend 6 years of my life researching a topic that hardly interests me. If I'm so fixated on becoming a teacher, perhaps a masters degree and work experience would be sufficient to teach at a college?
In any case, I shouldn't come to any conclusions before I actually try working an office job during the summer. Maybe I'll enjoy the fact that the weekends will truly belong to me. Sure, I'll have to put in more effort than now (I have a ridiculous amount of free time that I enjoy basically wasting, but that's a whole other story), but perhaps it'll be worth having 2 days every week during which I don't have to think of work at all, with no assignments or studying.
Well that's not true, I'm actually a pretty hard worker when I put my mind to it. What I don't like is to work on someone else's terms. In school, I would never seriously start assignments in class. Class and outside life was for socializing, not for work. Fast forward a couple of years, I'm in college still doing homework and assignments primarily at home. I just can't focus in class or in a library. Fast forward even further, I'm halfway through a Masters Degree, with a Co-op job lined up for the summer.
The more I think about my future employment, the more I dread it. Won't I feel trapped? The fact that I live so far away from work will force me to leave the house at 7:20 AM and to come back around 6:30 PM if I'm lucky. This is the fate of many of my friends and classmates. Why can't I just accept it? Why don't I want to conform? Further thinking about this has made me realize that many of my life choice were based on my desire to not work the typical office schedule. My decision to go to graduate school, my desire to become a professor, my decision to work as a TA/RA instead of getting a job outside of university.
I have no real motivation to do research or to become a scientist (I sometimes think I'm hardly curious or patient enough for such large endeavors). The only things that attract me in academia are teaching and a more or less flexible schedule. Now, I'm starting to wonder if these two elements are sufficient to motivate me to pursue a Ph.D. in the future. In order to obtain a flexible schedule and a job that involves teaching/training, I'm almost certain that I need not spend 6 years of my life researching a topic that hardly interests me. If I'm so fixated on becoming a teacher, perhaps a masters degree and work experience would be sufficient to teach at a college?
In any case, I shouldn't come to any conclusions before I actually try working an office job during the summer. Maybe I'll enjoy the fact that the weekends will truly belong to me. Sure, I'll have to put in more effort than now (I have a ridiculous amount of free time that I enjoy basically wasting, but that's a whole other story), but perhaps it'll be worth having 2 days every week during which I don't have to think of work at all, with no assignments or studying.
