Comments on: Dirty Little Freaks

By: jeneria

jeneria — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:19:37 +0000

If you don't have a Master's you could start there. If you already do have a Master's and know you love the teaching but maybe not so much the research, then you could teach through an online school (my husband does this) or adjunct or think about K-12. You could also pick up a Technical Communication certificate (an in-demand field with few qualified individuals) or an MA in Tech Comm.

The thing about the PhD is this: it doesn't guarantee you a job, at least not in English. You have better chances if you go for a Rhetoric and Composition degree over a Literature degree, but even then, there are 300+ people applying for jobs even at community colleges. If you're not insanely passionate about your research and in a financial position where it may take you several years to get a job after several years earning the PhD, then I wouldn't do it.

By: Cutestlisa

Cutestlisa — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:30:50 +0000

Jeneria, what do you have in mind then? I'm considering a PhD but have huge doubts. Please ramble a bit more if you don't mind, maybe about other options, or whatever- thanks.

Sorry to use your blog for this Sasha! Good luck with whatever you choose, even though you don't need it.

By: Jo

Jo — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 02:01:36 +0000

1. I am also obsessed with Pink's new song. I heard it 3 times on the way home from work yesterday. Love. It.

2. I totally understand the learning thing and I cannot agree more about the feeling that the world never settles down. I think part of what has caused me to uproot my comfy life so many times is that I always just feel like there's something more out there that I might be missing. And, of course, I got to get my ass out there and make sure. But…. I think, that's what makes us.

By: jeneria

jeneria — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:03:25 +0000

Yeah, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but I think anyone contemplating graduate school should know what they're really in for. There are things I wish I'd been told, not because it would have stopped me, but because it would have helped me better negotiate the system.

By: Sterncheryl

Sterncheryl — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 19:39:12 +0000

agree, I had no idea how competitive and often petty academia could be until I experienced it

By: LoveFromMN

LoveFromMN — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:21:31 +0000

So, so glad you are back… I needed your voice. I have been feeling for a long time that I will never find what makes me content career wise and I am constantly thinking of going back to school, hoping that my big dream come true will follow and make me feel complete. I recently took a leap of faith, quit my stable job, and moved away from home. I got a new job and I hate it. I spend every day kicking myself and scratching at the walls of my mind trying to figure out what to do and how to fix it. I cannot go back, and I am miserable. The only thing I can think of to do is write, plan, scheme, and try everything I ever thought about doing. Now is the time to figure it out. The frightening part is, I don't know where to start.

By: Mal

Mal — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:21:18 +0000

“Academia never quite orgasms.”

That is so true. I have a year and a half left before receiving my JD, and I really am not looking forward to joining the real world. I really enjoy the student's life, and I totally understand your wanting to go back to school. Best of luck!

By: jeneria

jeneria — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:58:03 +0000

Cheap advice from an English professor. Don't do a PhD unless you are ready to live it for the duration of the degree. And I mean live it. It becomes your entire life. You make shit money on a stipend, grind it out teaching kids composition, sit through course after course that may or may not apply to the topic you think you're going to dissertate on, endure grueling hazing by your committee members, spend two + years writing and researching and writing and by the end you hate the product and you just want to get out. And then there's the job search. It took me 2 years and 300+ applications to get my job.

You can love learning and you can do it in ways that won't involve going into debt for a PhD.

By: Katie Loud

Katie Loud — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:23:17 +0000

Cheap advice from an aspiring novelist/English teacher regarding your #nanowrimo: WRITE. Just start. As questions come up (they inevitably will ... I got bogged down in my second novel because all of a sudden two characters came to life that were civil rights activists who'd marched with MLK and I'm ashamed to say that I knew next to nothing about what that would have been like), you find a resource (print, primary source, friend that's an expert, and so on) to help you out. I sent out a mass e-mail to every social studies teacher I know and said something like, "So, uh ... what would life be like for a contemporary of Martin Luther King, Jr.?" I got a couple of "I hope you're not doing Johnny's homework for him!!!!", but for the most part they were very helpful. My friend Zak replied with what might well have been the start to his future dissertation. I suddenly knew enough to write it--it's not the strongest part of the novel, but I have faith that there are enough people that will help me out with that as time goes on.

Sorry this is rambling ... I'm home sick and on Percocet ;-) I guess bottom line, this is a frequent conversation I have with my students.

SUSY: I don't get it.
ME: Just start writing.
SUSY: I don't know how.
ME: Just write.
SUSY: How?
ME: Pick up your pen and put it on the paper.
SUSY: I don't get it.
ME: You filled out your planner with the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. You even know the other word for resolution.
SUSY: Right. Denouement.
ME: Awesome. You know what you're doing, Susy.
SUSY: I don't get it.
ME: You mean, you don't know where to start?
SUSY: Yes.
ME: Start with "Once upon a time."
SUSY: That's stupid.
ME: Well, it's not high class writing ... but it'll get you started, and once you get started, you won't be able to stop.
SUSY: What if it's really bad?
ME: The thing is, Susy, you can improve bad writing. Even good writing, you can always work with it to make it better, it's a constant process. But what can you do with no writing?
SUSY: Nothing.
ME: Exactly. Now get going.

I've lost all perspective on what my point was here, but I guess the bottom line is that I've really been looking forward to reading your stuff ... start it with "Once upon a time" (because revision is a perpetual process) if you have to, but you please start it. You're too gifted a writer to do otherwise.