So you're working your way into the club. Does that mean teaching others so they can get into the club too?

Well. I don't really see it in terms of a 'club' I see it more in terms of serving an apprenticeship in order to earn my entrance to a 'guild' or wider community of peers. If someone spends time doing an engineering degree and then goes and gets a job as an engineer he didnt 'join a club'.

@ SD - :) You so funny. I give discount, ok Joe?

Dana, I actually mean several men I've been close to (no, not like that).
I don't disregard the value of a degree, hell, I'm still at it even after last year's nightmare world of pain, but...but...since that time, my life lense seems to have re-focused, all on it's own. Without intention, I find myself less able to re-create the rabid enthusiasm I had for my subject; making highest honors means nothing to me now while before it was what I measured my self worth against; pleasing these assholes is so not important; I don't give a shit if they don't like me OR my papers; academia is wonderful - for those who can withstand the suffering. Having suffered, I no longer want to. Esp. for something so ethereal as "academia" - they can be such frauds, such snobs.

I'm jaded, yeah. Bitter? No. I still believe in it - just not so completely. I wouldn't give myself over to it. Not now. I've no time for these petty games. I'd rather be a waitress.

eta: I DO NOT want to be standing where "they" stand. I've seen what it's cost them, what it does to them. Like insulting a painter: not worth it.*

*Stephen Fry, The Hippopotomus. Hilarious.

No he didn't, he went out in the world to hopefully to some good for mankind, by applying what he learned to earn a living.
The other option for him is to teach what he has learned to others so they can avail themselves of the first option.
Either way, they are paying back.
Being a professional student is not.

Taking time to complete a degree isnt the same thng as being a professional student.


Now....I am a professional student lol. Keeping going through the whole shebang. MA next, then PhD.

It's much more fun being an unprofessional student.

I'm hoping I have enough time left in the day to still be a professional, while being a student.

Sure, you already know the material, you're just going through the motions to satisfy the club of your worthiness.