Retrospection is a funny thing. It often causes us to jeer and heckle at our past tribulations, trivializing our obstacles and exposing our past naivete. As my girlfriend always reminds me though, hindsight is always 20/20. It is always in reflection that we think our panic attacks were a tad bit over-dramatic and that our reactions to our dilemmas were rather disproportionate.
A year ago, in this very time frame, I felt I had reached the nadir of my educational/professional life. I had just graduated in May of that 2009 in a particularly volatile period where the economy was the antithesis of booming and when a Bachelor’s degree (as pertaining to the world of science) became the new GED–useless if this was your final destination, but necessary if furthering your education. Since May, I had spent the next four months looking for a job, rather ironic considering in my last year of college, I held down 3 jobs on top of being a full-time student.
In addition to being jobless, I was falling behind on handing in applications for grad school. I was also slowly being excommunicated from my parents who saw little good in my declaring a year off, something not very many of my friends or family had ever done. Pretty soon, I was dirt poor and could not pay my rent, had about 20 job interviews that all proved to be futile, and was making a rather deplorable case to my parents on why taking a year in between undergrad and grad school would be beneficial. Continue reading
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