Gowns and funny hats...
Mar. 3rd, 2005 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morslaSeven years of studying, and I went to my first graduation ceremony last night. It wasn't mine, though - despite my two-year head start, my "little" sister beat me by a month, and has twice as many bits of paper to show for it...
At least the event convinced me of one thing - I could never become a career academic, if only because that I don't deal well with straight-faced pomp and ceremony. I know it's supposed to be a serious occasion, but it's hard not to be a little irreverant about it all :) The night has got me thinking about things, though - what I've done, what I might do next. Getting a piece of paper is possibly the least important thing to me, as it only represents the subjects studied and the marks recieved. The most important things I've learned over the years had nothing to do with my coursework - they came from organising things, participating in things, being involved in the world. The things I learned in clubs and committees have stayed relevant in all other parts of my life, but my coursework is rarely anything more than trivia.
I first started at the uni in a BA/BSc course - 500 points (five years) of undirected rambling through two huge faculties. After three years, I took off to work for a semester. The following March I started to juggle 2 days work with 3-4 days uni, and continued doing so all the way until last November...
I came from high school with a burning desire to Go Somewhere with chemistry - I was good at it, I enjoyed doing it, and I liked where I could go with it. I was talked out of doing a pure chemistry course, and ended up mixing chem with History and Philosophy of Science - something that I ended up doing a complete major in. My love of chemistry faded, as I looked around at the chemistry postgrads and academics - I didn't want to end up like that, so firmly stuck in my box that I couldn't see the rest of the world around me. So I shuffled my plans a bit, and included a few Geology subjects.
Later, I split up my course, turning it into a pair of undergrad degrees. HPS went into a BA (Media and Communications); a new course that had appeared while I was working full time. I had high hopes for the course, but I never finished it - half way through, I just couldn't see what I could get out of it. I had no intention of using the course for academic media studies, but had hoped that I could pick up enough media skills to mix them with my science background. I was wrong... I was in the wrong uni for a practical course, and already had a theoretical arts background from my other major. Without any obvious new skills to learn, my interest waned, and I dropped the course.
The other subjects went into a BSc, which I bloated by fitting in a second major (overextending the course) in Geology. This was (and is) a field that I feel comfortable in... it's a department where the staff are passionate about what they teach, but are (mostly) still connected to reality. I ended up spending last year working on a Geochemistry honours project, examining inclusion crystals (garnet, pryoxene) in diamond. I dropped the ball at the end of the year, and didn't do nearly as well as I could have - and my supervisor knew it. He has still approached me about doing a PhD, but right at the moment I don't want to go down that path. While it opens a lot of options later on, it also puts on another set of blinkers - and I refuse to stop looking around me.
In a month's time I'll be the one walking up to collect my own bit of paper, a BSc (Hons). While I haven't failed a subject in the 575 points I ended up studying and I've picked up four years of experience at work, irrational bits in my mind still wonder whether I really should have taken so many different roads before only finishing one of them. I've been at the uni for three years longer than most of the people collecting the same certificate, and don't have anything concrete to show for it.
Conclusions? Don't have any, sorry. I'm still mulling this over, because I'm honestly not sure what I'm doing right at the moment. Other thoughts and perspectives are welcomed... I'm having trouble seeing it all while I'm standing in the middle of it.
At least the event convinced me of one thing - I could never become a career academic, if only because that I don't deal well with straight-faced pomp and ceremony. I know it's supposed to be a serious occasion, but it's hard not to be a little irreverant about it all :) The night has got me thinking about things, though - what I've done, what I might do next. Getting a piece of paper is possibly the least important thing to me, as it only represents the subjects studied and the marks recieved. The most important things I've learned over the years had nothing to do with my coursework - they came from organising things, participating in things, being involved in the world. The things I learned in clubs and committees have stayed relevant in all other parts of my life, but my coursework is rarely anything more than trivia.
I first started at the uni in a BA/BSc course - 500 points (five years) of undirected rambling through two huge faculties. After three years, I took off to work for a semester. The following March I started to juggle 2 days work with 3-4 days uni, and continued doing so all the way until last November...
I came from high school with a burning desire to Go Somewhere with chemistry - I was good at it, I enjoyed doing it, and I liked where I could go with it. I was talked out of doing a pure chemistry course, and ended up mixing chem with History and Philosophy of Science - something that I ended up doing a complete major in. My love of chemistry faded, as I looked around at the chemistry postgrads and academics - I didn't want to end up like that, so firmly stuck in my box that I couldn't see the rest of the world around me. So I shuffled my plans a bit, and included a few Geology subjects.
Later, I split up my course, turning it into a pair of undergrad degrees. HPS went into a BA (Media and Communications); a new course that had appeared while I was working full time. I had high hopes for the course, but I never finished it - half way through, I just couldn't see what I could get out of it. I had no intention of using the course for academic media studies, but had hoped that I could pick up enough media skills to mix them with my science background. I was wrong... I was in the wrong uni for a practical course, and already had a theoretical arts background from my other major. Without any obvious new skills to learn, my interest waned, and I dropped the course.
The other subjects went into a BSc, which I bloated by fitting in a second major (overextending the course) in Geology. This was (and is) a field that I feel comfortable in... it's a department where the staff are passionate about what they teach, but are (mostly) still connected to reality. I ended up spending last year working on a Geochemistry honours project, examining inclusion crystals (garnet, pryoxene) in diamond. I dropped the ball at the end of the year, and didn't do nearly as well as I could have - and my supervisor knew it. He has still approached me about doing a PhD, but right at the moment I don't want to go down that path. While it opens a lot of options later on, it also puts on another set of blinkers - and I refuse to stop looking around me.
In a month's time I'll be the one walking up to collect my own bit of paper, a BSc (Hons). While I haven't failed a subject in the 575 points I ended up studying and I've picked up four years of experience at work, irrational bits in my mind still wonder whether I really should have taken so many different roads before only finishing one of them. I've been at the uni for three years longer than most of the people collecting the same certificate, and don't have anything concrete to show for it.
Conclusions? Don't have any, sorry. I'm still mulling this over, because I'm honestly not sure what I'm doing right at the moment. Other thoughts and perspectives are welcomed... I'm having trouble seeing it all while I'm standing in the middle of it.
It is far better to give work that is above a person, than to educate the person to be above their work.
- John Ruskin
One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going.
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
- John Ruskin
One never goes further than when they do not know where they are going.
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
