Last Wednesday was my last night of college “class”. I still have one more night to attend April 20th) to perform my senior project presentation and turn in my senior project, but for all intents and purposes, I’m done. Graduation is May 14th.
I should probably feel more excited about the whole thing but I don’t. I think part of it is because the excitement of graduating is somewhat of cancelled out by the embarrassment of never having completed it in the first place. All of this would have been so much cheaper and easier had I done this a decade ago when I should have. Another reason I don’t think I’m as excited as I probably should be is because this degree really isn’t gaining me anything at the moment. In a way I feel like I just spent a bunch of money and put in a lot of effort just to reach the status quo, to get the degree that everybody else got four years after high school ended. It’s already been established that achieving this degree won’t affect my job (monetarily or position-wise) and even if I used it to get another job, it’s doubtful it would pay what this one does. I guess I should have thought about this stuff fifteen thousand dollars ago.
All this nonsense begs the question of why I did it in the first place. There are two reasons. One is because Susan told me to (hah). The other is, I did it for me. I guess I did it to say to myself, I can do it; and I did, although there was never really any question in my mind that I could do it (I’ve met more than one idiot with a degree) so now I guess I feel like I just spent all that money to prove to OTHER people that I could do it. Of course the people that know me knew I could do it, so really it’s like I just spent all that money to prove it to people that don’t know me, which seems even more ridiculous.
Thoughts of pursuing a master’s degree are still up in the air. On one hand, I think that a master’s degree would put me ahead of the rat pack (or at least closer to the front). On the other hand, it’s still very much a degree that wouldn’t affect my current working situation in the least. I equate the pursuit of a master’s degree with the pursuit of a new career. That’s not to say I’m not considering it … it’s just that as I’ve said before, a bachelor’s degree can help you out regardless of your vocation. Many of the skills I’ve learned throughout SNU’s Organizational Leadership program can be applied today. But a master’s degree without any direction seems kind of pointless.
Wow, that’s the most depressing “I just graduated from college” post I’ve ever read!