a Saturday at the library

Who ever thought that I would be spending a Saturday in the library reading and writing about Karl Marx and Max Weber. Seriously, I thought I was studying higher education! I guess it is true that all subjects are related in one way or another, but I honestly never pictured myself here. In retrospect, I probably should have taken at least one class in sociology and one class in economics as an undergrad.

I am one of the biggest proponents of a liberal arts education, yet I seem to have not taken advantage of it while I was a student. To be sure my degree in English is worthwhile, as is the minor in biology. But if I would have had the foresight to see where I would be a mere 15 years after graduation I would have done things differently. Besides, I honestly thought that at this point in my life I would be teaching creative writing. (This was after I thought I would be a dentist, then a radiologist, then a stage manager. I'm living proof that college students change their major at least five times!)

So, here I am at the library, seated across from my fellow dissertator, typing away. We've eaten lunch, shared a bag of M&Ms and watched David Hasselhoff on YouTube. And, to our credit, we've both gotten a lot accomplished on our "little research papers." It's really the perfect day to be sequestered in the library: dark, cold, dreary, rainy. So we each have our laptops open, flipping pages in our notebooks, searching articles and texts for references, typing intermittently. It's much better than being here alone . . .