>Wasband,
pilfered it from ThatRogersWoman, Debz!!! :)
> I like that. Yoshie is stalling, though, without your good excuses,
> aren't you, dear? --jks
NO SHE IS NOT!!!
i think it is unhelpful to ride yoshie or any grad student like this. i've had these conversations forever with folks. she is going thru a serious, very real crisis, realizing what she's up against. she has it far worse than most people because she's not from the US and she's a leftist. she's got ideals. the snots that are career grinds make it thru just fine and know how to suck ass.
why do i say this about "helpfulness"?
i was fortunate: i've already been thru the crisis she's going thru and thank all known deities i did it with no time to freak, during my second year and in midst of divorce. i was lucky: i had mentoring feminists in my dept who, while they fscked up a lot, took the time to tell us what was going on.
Judy Long Laws. she was one of the infamous Cornell Seven who fought Cornell back in the early seventies for sexist hiring and promotion practices. Judy was the only one who survived that ordeal and went on in academia. the rest had to drop out. and even then she had to end up at a third tier university when she "should" have been at Cornell. (She smoked a pipe to girls! :) i love her!) I love her. oh,i said that already!
she taught a course on the Academic Professions. She told us that what we were about to learn things that would depress us. severely. i didn't believe her. but she was right. i love her. did i say that yet?
professors need to mentor us. yes, kick us in the ass, but a serious discussion of the structural limitations and taking seriously our concerns and analyzing the contrdictions is what is called for!!!
you need to listen to her whining, support her and recognize and help her analyze the structured nature of what's going on. it will still make her angry, but telling her that her feelings aren't real or that she's illegitimately whining is wrong. we deserve to have a pity party and whine, but do so and try to see the social structural operations of the economy. that's what you are there for. to help her stop blaming herself for writers block or malaise or feeling tired. most of the baby boomers did NOT have to deal with any of the things we have to deal with. people in their 50s tell me that they had money thrown at them!
i did not scold chuck for his assumptions be/c i think there is a hierarchy of acceptable and unacceptable reasons for getting in a funk about it all. i do not talk about my experiences to say to others that they are better off so shut up already!
that is wrong.
so, yoshie, wallow in your funk for awhile. you're freaking entitled!
maybe you shouldn't finsih it. who knows. it depends on what YOU want to do and there's no reason that, if you aren't sure you want to teach/write/research as a prof does, that you should finish a PhD.'
you are NOT a failure if you don't finish the PhD. only 1`% of the US popoulation has an advanced degree. that you got anywhere means you're exceptional.
and if you need to, i'll hook you up with Judy. she's waaaaaaaaaay cooler to talk to! :)