Thursday 25 September 2008

Redirection correction


My finish to the last post (no, not that last post! God, there are so many verbal traps. I said to someone the other day "Now that I am back in the land of the living...". Ooops.) anyway, my finish to the last post was a little was a little ambiguous.

My problem: I wasn't due back in town until October 29th. By which time the Australian football season would have been over, sparing me the foolish antics of a lot of self-opinionated twats with no necks and lycra undershorts. Now, not to be. The US election would have been nearly over, sparing me the forest leveling commentaries while still getting to sit up and watch the result. (How on earth did they re-elect GWB?). But more importantly, and the reason for the "What now?" comment in the last post, I would also be getting back in need of figuring out what to do next year.

Option 1: Return to Chemistry. Chemistry is fun when you are involved with problem solving and, like all jobs, deadly dull when you are just doing 'production line' stuff. Testing 100 steels for manganese content was awful, telling a customer, who had returned a coil of steel to you because it was faulty, that a trace element analysis suggests that it originated from Japan and that they should return it there was lovely.

Option 2: Last year I finished honours in psychology, first class honours in fact. But what to do with it. I don't think I am PhD fodder. Should I try to add to the study with, say, a Masters of some sort? Full-time? Part-time? Should I look for work with what I have, working under supervision?

The problem with psychology is that the subject, the working of the mind, is really interesting but the work of a psychologist is not at all like that and centres around a lot of troubled people with some pretty distressing problems. I loved psychology itself but I am a little unsure whether I want to be a psychologist. Certainly there are positive areas in psychology but I feel I would lack credibility as, say, a sports psychologist. I gave up correspondence chess because of the pace.

Option 3. Any sort of gainful employment at all. (Coda: As long as it is interesting.)

Option 4. Retirement. I don't think so.

Hence my 'what now' question.
...

16 comments:

  1. Ohhhhhhhhh...

    OK, then... my vote would be for school. But I like school and I think it's really cool when old people get degrees ;) (Payback for that normal-ish comment... hee hee). Anyway, working on your Master's in a subject that interests you might give you some direction other than the therapist route... you think?

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  2. i think a novel of some sort. lets see - a serial killer who uses chemistry to kill - a detective - and the psychologist that helps him figure it all out. or maybe a gig on a crime tv show where you flesh out the "whys".

    good to see you out and about. i am really sad to read about your dad, lee. my heart goes out to you.

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  3. why decide? Leave all of that open for awhile. Give yourself time to readjust to the world, and to the internal changes that accompany grief.

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  4. I seem to have arrived at your blog at a very special moment, when something is being liberated in you, and the range of options is so unfettered...

    Psychology has completely different meanings, doesn't it?

    When you say "Certainly there are positive areas in psychology but I feel I would lack credibility as, say, a sports psychologist. I gave up correspondence chess because of the pace" I wondered first if you should get a prize in non-sequiturs, but then concluded there was a bridge between the two sentences that I could not fill in.

    The same as there must be some kind of bridge between your different interests---you---which makes options 1, 2, 4 & 3 capable of being blended in some hitherto undiscovered way.

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  5. I get the sports bit & the chess. It is exactly how I feel about sport. Shame you didn't manage to dodge the stupidity of it all!

    Life does go on, though it be sadly at times.

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  6. I know it is impossible to tell others what they should do ("If I were you........" - well, I am not)
    But I guess I would relax, lay myself open to life and take what it presented. I like the Chinese saying
    "When the pupil is ready, the master will appear"

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  7. Have you ever thought about teaching? I don't know the requirements over there, but here, if you get a masters degree or higher, you can teach college level. From the way you blog, "teaching" comes naturally to you. Seems to me, if you love the study of psychology but don't love the idea of being a psychologist, then maybe teaching about psychology to others would be an interesting direction for you to go as it would provide the opportunity to continually study and learn more of the subject yourself. Just my two cents worth... :-)

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  8. ...or you could just focus your time on "The curate, after dark"... ;-)

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  9. "...wait!
    I didn't tell you my election choices and why!"

    Yeah, and thnkfully so.

    Actually, I didn't see 'teach' up there.

    Greatest thing about teaching (even part time) is how much you learn.

    Plus, it would give you the time you need right now.
    You know....

    to go get those weeds out of the garden.
    Hey, buddy, Spring's dead set on happenning your way...get them now or watch in sheer terror as they decimate the rest of your yard.

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  10. Hey, I'm going to put my support forth for the teaching thing, too... I'd take one of your classes!

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  11. yeah, how about you write your life experience, like others opinion about novel.Hmm..thats what the only thing that I can think on my retirement as government staff, yeah other than teaching by my own.

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  12. I like windblownbutterfly's idea about teaching. Your blog teaches me stuff all the time without making it drab (e.g. the spf post last week). Teaching Chemistry might be ideal, at least for me, since I find the subject awfully boring!

    BTW, as much as I feel for you having to live through the football crap, I have to listen to all the political ads every day. CHRIST! Not one of them uses 'all the truth and nothing but the truth'. There are so many partial truths going around that the newspaper in St. Petersburg (http://www2.tbo.com/news/politics/ was running a series on the 'truth value' of what the candidates were saying. Not many good scores!

    Keep your chin up. My dad died in 1982 and I still dream about him occasionally. It's just normal stuff. Take care.

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  13. I vote for school too but maybe a different course and I like the writing suggestion too. I think you're rich with experience..why not write about it?

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  14. 'what now' for me too. waiting to find out which option you choose.

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  15. Hey you all, I was gonna say Teaching!
    I think you'll be a great teacher/mentor, think of high school or Uni.

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