Getting ready to slog to campus for official business type crap, I suddenly felt depressed, as if I had been chasing after something my whole life that really didn't matter in the greater scheme of things. Perhaps this is just a passing hormone cloud, but I don't really think so. I have suddenly realized there is more to life than degrees and a tenure track position. Sometimes I think we trade our souls for the ephemeral illusion of success, when, really, I don't know that we have to go so bloody far.
You know, I think girls today are being ripped off. In school, we are all basically indoctrinated with this idea that you must go to school and get some sort of career, or else you are setting back the Women's Movement or something - as if staying at home and having kids is somehow equivalent to repealing the universal suffrage laws. This is unfair. Women's rights should be about increasing women's choices, not limiting them. I do feel a bit screwed over. These days, I am starting to think I could have survived quite happily as a housewife - given enough books around, a good husband, and some time for volunteer work, of course. I don't see how the rat race is that much of a better way to live.
You've come a long way, baby - only to find the secret to life isn't in a salary, afterall.
2 comments:
Maybe this is trite, but I wonder what if success isn't based upon the career path itself? What if it's simply the reward of doing the works upon which you feel most passionate? I mean, earning the trophies of degrees and salaries are remarkable accomplishments, but after all, they are the means, not the end. In that, success is knowing the world is becoming a better place because of your efforts to enlighten the people around you.
of course, if that pep-talk doesn't work, I should remind you there are other rewards in store for you... ;)
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