I have wanted to apply to graduate school for the past five years, but it has been all about timing and money. It is still about timing and money. I am not sure we still have quote enough "money" because we need to get out of debt to expand our house. The timing with the age of our children still isn't ideal, but I started the process this year anyway.
This is a bit daunting for me because I have not had a college class for eleven years now. I feel old to be applying to graduate school, but I know there are many "older" students. I am only in my mid 30s. It's strange because I have been a homemaker for twelve years and only done a little freelance writing. Graduate school is a large step outside my comfort zone.
I really felt old studying for the GRE because I have not done geometry for 20 years. I fulfilled my college math credit with high school dual enrollment credit, so I have not had math since high school. I practiced my times tables and worked through questions on one and half books with my toddler's "help."
Last week I took the GRE. My brain almost exploded halfway through four and half hours of testing. To think that I paid $205 for this voluntary torture! It is a means to an end...
So I have debated what to apply for graduate school. I thought I may want to go to law school or get my master's in linguistics or creative writing. I realized that linguistics is the niche I want, but I am still a creative writer. I love to study language and to craft language into stories.
My biggest stumbling block in this process has been writing my statement of intent because I don't know what I want to focus on studying in linguistics. With bipolar, I want to study the next shiny object. I am writing this post to gather some of my thoughts.
I want a broad understanding of linguistics that I didn't quite get from my undergraduate degree. I have gaps in first and second language acquisition, historical linguistics, and comparative linguistics. I am interested in phonetics and word etymologies.
My career goal is to be able to teach writing, English linguistics, or general linguistics at a post-secondary institution. On the side, I plan to write my own poetry and novels.
I believe each word is poem. It's sound adds meaning. Its history adds weight. Its function in a sentence as a noun, verb, or as perhaps both.
And yet language is so imprecise that it cannot capture our thoughts adequately. It is merely a set of symbols.
Now I wax philosophical.
Good night.
This is a bit daunting for me because I have not had a college class for eleven years now. I feel old to be applying to graduate school, but I know there are many "older" students. I am only in my mid 30s. It's strange because I have been a homemaker for twelve years and only done a little freelance writing. Graduate school is a large step outside my comfort zone.
I really felt old studying for the GRE because I have not done geometry for 20 years. I fulfilled my college math credit with high school dual enrollment credit, so I have not had math since high school. I practiced my times tables and worked through questions on one and half books with my toddler's "help."
Last week I took the GRE. My brain almost exploded halfway through four and half hours of testing. To think that I paid $205 for this voluntary torture! It is a means to an end...
So I have debated what to apply for graduate school. I thought I may want to go to law school or get my master's in linguistics or creative writing. I realized that linguistics is the niche I want, but I am still a creative writer. I love to study language and to craft language into stories.
My biggest stumbling block in this process has been writing my statement of intent because I don't know what I want to focus on studying in linguistics. With bipolar, I want to study the next shiny object. I am writing this post to gather some of my thoughts.
I want a broad understanding of linguistics that I didn't quite get from my undergraduate degree. I have gaps in first and second language acquisition, historical linguistics, and comparative linguistics. I am interested in phonetics and word etymologies.
My career goal is to be able to teach writing, English linguistics, or general linguistics at a post-secondary institution. On the side, I plan to write my own poetry and novels.
I believe each word is poem. It's sound adds meaning. Its history adds weight. Its function in a sentence as a noun, verb, or as perhaps both.
And yet language is so imprecise that it cannot capture our thoughts adequately. It is merely a set of symbols.
Now I wax philosophical.
Good night.
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