Quote:
Originally Posted by scorpiosis37
I do appreciate the suggestion, but I'm not really looking for career services. I've really already made my decision, but what I'm struggling with is what my identity is if I'm no longer an academic and how to explain my choice to my colleague-friends. I know that I'm doing the right thing if I want to move back to my home state, where my family/friends are, and start a family of my own. But I'm having those "what if's" in the back of my head-- what if I regret no longer being a professor, what if I regret no longer presenting at the conferences, and what if my colleagues judge me for leaving the profession. My dad has already asked me "why did you get a PhD if you're leaving academia and going into a field where you don't need one?" It's those kind of comments that rub me the wrong way and make we want to sort out my feelings with a therapist. And I basically have 3 weeks to decide for sure if I'm going to bite the bullet, pull out of a conference, leave the University when the semester ends, and move across the country.
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In terms of practical stuff -- E.g. new job start date, a lease ending, sorting out finances etc -- is the 3-week deadline absolutely sacrosanct? Or, could you, for instance, stick around for an additional semester (not sure whether that would mean a whole new academic year or just a semester and how feasible / workable one would be over the other?) and take the time to make up your mind?
Mostly because I'd worry about the quality of any therapeutic insight I'd get from a T -- especially for a major life-changing decision -- who has seen me only for 3 weeks? In that sort of a situation, I'd be more likely to rely on the advice of friends who've known me for long (assuming such folks are easily available / have the time to parse stuff out with you etc)?