Back to School Pressures

Family members have been urging me to go back to school for a master’s degree since the day I graduated with a bachelor’s. It’s starting to get annoying. Whenever I mention an upcoming trip they find a way to turn the conversation to the fact that I could be using that money for school. Perhaps I could if it was a priority for me.

I’m all for higher education, but school was never my thing. I made decent grades through high school, but in college I stopped caring about classes that didn’t interest me. My grades unfortunately reflected that fact. I liked my journalism classes, but all those prerequisite courses, such as Math for Liberal Arts Majors, lacked a certain appeal. I tried to pick courses that sounded interesting, but sometimes the professors were a total bore (I’m looking at you cultural anthropology).

No one was happier to graduate from college than me. I tell people all the time I’m not going back to school. Sure, I’ve tossed around the idea of getting a master’s. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because all my friends are either working on or have a masters or Ph.D. No one wants to be the one degree friend. But several things keep me from going forward.

Mainly I don’t quite know where I want to go with my career, much less what to study. I majored in the one thing I liked, journalism, and became a newspaper reporter. Now I’ve switched gears to educational program management. Communications or education seems like the most logical choice, but I’m not starting school until definite about what I want to do.

Also there is that pesky little problem of paying for classes. Everyone is saying go back to school, but none of them are putting up any money. I’m still paying off the last degree. I have no desire to take on an additional financial burden until that one is done (December 2014!). Once I really get serious about going to school, I can check to see if my job offers tuition reimbursement. Until then, it’s just a distant thought.

My mother and grandmother made me take piano lessons, long after I lost interest. I’m an adult now and have no desire to pursue something if my heart isn’t totally in it. Unfortunately school will just have to wait, at least until I really want to do it. Maybe that day will come next semester. Maybe it will never happen. Ultimately it’s my decision (considering I’ll be doing the work and paying the bill).