I know better than to fully trust these what-to-do-with-my-life epiphanies, but I had a set of realizations that startled me today.
- I’ve been in academia my whole adult life — 4 years at a New England liberal arts college, 1 at a big European university, and 1 working at and attending a big Boston university.
- If I went the grad school route, I’d be spending at least three (MA) and as many as seven (PhD) of the “best” years of my life in the library — from 25 until 28 or 32. (I’m including the year of prep that would precede an actual program.)
When I think of those things, spending the rest of my 20s reading, say, John Rawls feels incredibly unappealing. Especially considering that, despite being a Total Genius(tm), I think I’m a little too ADD to really succeed in academia, at least at this point in my life.
What do I really want to do with my 20s? Play music, that’s what. That’s what I was all about before college, and it’s only been through accidental circumstances that I stopped playing then.
I can envision a future where I play music for a few years, and somehow, tastefully, combine it with my more intellectual interests, and eventually go back to academia if it feels like the right move. Like Greg Graffin did. [Actually, he did both at once. Hmm...] But I don’t think you can do it the other way round.
