Post-Grad Life Mediation

In my post last week, I talked about how much grad life sucks. Or, sucked, rather. Last week I finished my last graduate class for the foreseeable future. I say "foreseeable" because at this point in my life I do not want to pursue any more degrees, at least not yet. In 20 years my student loan debt will have grown to about 150k and in these last few days after my last class, I have been wallowing in the glory that is no homework, no deadlines, and lots of time for things that I love to do.

In this newfound time I got to see the new Godzilla this week, not once, but twice. In the movie (without giving spoilers away) there is a line that is said to the main character, Ford, before he is reunited with his family after being away (military) for 14 months. The guy tells him to, "Take it slow, it's the one thing they don't train you for." Or something like that.

The movie aside (I enjoyed it enough to see it twice, but I'll leave it at that), I feel like that statement applies to your life after graduate school. Although not nearly as tough as military service (or at all, for that matter), grad life sucks your time away from the things that you love to do, the people you love to be around, and your "normal" life. When you finish, you are suddenly imbued with the power to do all of these things you put off. Things like, reading books that are not a part of a syllabus; painting your nails; going for a walk; splurging on as many episodes of Supernatural as you want on Netflix; seeing a newly released movie (i.e. Godzilla); or even something as simple as sitting on your bed in the morning while having coffee without having to turn on the computer to get a quick assignment in before work. 

But this is also a very dangerous thing.

So I was thinking about how there should be some sort of cool-down program for graduate students. Maybe some little getaway that keeps you from overindulging on all of the things you were looking forward to once free from the structure of academia. You take one book, or perhaps just a few movies, and you go where it's relaxing, low-maintenance (people cook for you and stuff so you don't have to) and you ease back into your life you had before, or maybe you didn't have the life before, you just get to do all the things you dreamed of doing when you were stuck writing a paper at 3am or in a class you didn't particularly care for. Suddenly all of those, "I can't wait until..." sentences get to come true.

I have a stack of books in my bedroom that I want to read, along with a list of comics I have been meaning to check out. My movie watch list is miles long, and I'm still not caught up on all of the episodes of Hannibal. There are numerous writing projects now in my head. Ones I want to get back at, and new adventures that I want to embark on. This blog, even, is one of those things that I am excited to make time for. Too many things, almost, are tearing me into different directions and the whole thing is starting to overload the senses and the desires. Even laundry is something exciting and I want to clean all of my washable things, fold them neatly, and be cheerful about it because I have the time.

That is what has been on my mind lately, thinking about how much fun it is going to be now that school is finally over, but also, trying to remind myself not to get too out of control, either. 

You don't learn how to mediate fun in grad school, but gosh darn it, we probably should.