Fellow Grad School Students: It's Okay, You're Not Alone . . . .

(But if you are, you are, you must be studying)

Hi there!  As a grad school student at GSU with a full-time job, I understand how difficult it can be to invest in your brain and your career in hopes of one day “having it all”.  Sometimes “The Dream” can be as elusive as an actual dream, sparking brilliantly and then fading as another morning reclaims our subconscious mind.  Sometimes it can be a nightmare.  We get laid off.  Money can be tight.  Work can present challenges in the forms of both difficult tasks and personalities.  We approach a class so humbling that it makes us question our own mental prowess and ability to learn new things.  We start to wonder if until now all the success was sheer luck and maybe there really was lead paint, asbestos and radon gas in the home where we grew up and the effects are just now starting to kick in.  Maybe even we start to visualize all the brain cells we think we senselessly murdered from the alcohol of our undergraduate college days.  We then mourn over the grand loss with a small toast of vodka before turning in to a bed covered in books, tablets, notes and assignments.

Studying can be messy

Sometimes it even hurts

If any of this sounds like you, I promise that you are not alone.  The challenges you face as you walk this path will provide you with transferable skills that you can use in every other aspect of your life.  One of the most important lessons I learned was that I can survive this incredible journey, but that I must do it at my own pace.  I am one of just a handful of MBA students that transitioned from full-time student status to the flex program.  Life sometimes acts like Dominoes, giving us signs we don’t want to always read and accept.  Doing poorly on a test that led to withdrawing from the class that led to leaving full-time status and a cohort environment to go it alone was one of the hardest things I had to go through academically.  As each piece fell and the path became more apparent, I resisted, dug in and tried even harder not understanding that for me it was already too late to stay the course. Staying the course would have been failure.  As a former perfectionist, it wasn’t in my nature to go down feeling defeated.  In the end I shook it off, realizing this end was also a new beginning, and moved forward quickly retaking the single course I withdrew from.  I surprised myself in how much I enjoyed the material when not being overloaded and how much the professor enjoyed imparting the knowledge.  My perspective changed and my optimism returned.

Look, I think I get this!

Taking one class at a time did not get me my life back.  I still have no idea what everyone’s binge watching on TV, or reading in a book club, or listening to on the radio (but as a Political Science major / Communications minor, I can talk with you about the debate and upcoming election – yes I do “break” for debates for either party).  Taking just one class at a time has allowed me to go to sleep at a more decent hour and no longer fall asleep in my chair.  Taking any classes at all seems to take a major toll on my workout routine.  I’ve tried reading academic material on the jogging machine.  If you like highlighting key points like I do, it doesn’t work well at all. 

Taking one class at a time allows me to stay organized.  Before, I could not consume and absorb three competing scholastic priorities, plus do justice to my job in sales development which very much involves investing in people, customers, products and services.  I’m actually fortunate that my degree is not a requirement for my job, as that takes all of that potential pressure off.   The expectations I set on myself are far more difficult than those anyone around me sets, for sure.

Taking one class at a time sometimes makes me feel like I’m on the “Ten Year Plan” (note:  there is no ten year plan toward graduation, but sometimes I think there ought to be).  Most of the classmates I enjoy spending time with today will have graduated long before I make it to those shining steps.  I’m okay with that.

It's a long and sometimes lonely path, but we're more than up to the challenge

I guess I most want to share that if you’re reading this and struggling with the work, home life, school balance, there really might not be a “balance” and there really doesn’t have to be one right now.  Where you put your time is a reflection of your values and your priorities.   Although this school thing might feel like “forever”, just remember how quickly the other sixteen years of studies flew by and how nostalgic we tend to be of those developmental years.  Here, we may be older now, but we’re developing minds even further, learning how to think more critically and learning how to apply our knowledge more deftly.  Our cool friends who may be experts on the latest pop culture based on their time investment, won’t ever quite be able to use that knowledge to compete and excel in the business world with both the classic and extremely modern information we are absorbing. 

If you have a struggle with keeping it all together while staying focused on achieving your next degree, feel free to send me your questions or concerns.  You can do this!  I believe in you.