Being in the world of work for the past 8 months (as opposed to the world of academia) I feel like I’ve been getting steadily dumber.
Not that my work doesn’t require a great deal of thought – but it’s very specific, and I feel like my mind’s stuck in a place where I can only reasonably process information within a certain context. I used to pour through policy documents as easily as if they were Harry Potter novels. Right now I’m finding myself having to read and re-read entire clauses of the Workers’ Compensation Act 2 and 3 times over before they make sense.
I also feel out of touch with what’s going on in the intellectual world. Friends are exploring and discussing politics, human rights issues, philosophy, theology… and I’m contemplating what kind of bottled water to order. I went out for brunch last Sunday with some people from SFU, and their conversation flowed flawlessly over issues that I hadn’t even thought about since I left school. Later that day with a different group of friends, I even went so far as to assert that Halifax is in Newfoundland. That’s something any 4th grade Social Studies student would have called me on.
So for anyone that’s been here before – seemingly too busy to bother being involved in the real issues – how did you get back into it? What are you reading, seeing, who are you talking to? Where can I go from here?
Ok….so I’m going to go on a limb here and when it comes to work, I don’t normaly do this. Dooood, you are too smart for this job. Ok, enough said. Let’s talk over coffay some time….
I just got a subscription to the Vancouver Sun, but I’m not sure whether that will really help. I find that reading certain blogs keeps me in touch with the world. Also, I try to read at least one non-fiction book every month so my brain stays agile for learning.
As for the WCB clauses – dear, no big surprise there. They’re not MEANT to be understood.
I’m so afraid that is going to happen to me.
It almost certaily will too. *cries*
I plan on taking one course by distance ed every semester starting in the fall just to try and prevent my brain from becoming stagnant. I’ll pick up a postbacc eventually too (or a second degree) *heh*.
Reading anything and everything helps.
But it still happens. The further we get away from schooling the more unlike a student we become. There are certainly ways to be educated, of course, but nothing quite touches the zealot that is a student.
Or, quite frankly, the arrogance. You and i are both at an age where it’s quite common to be surrounded by students, or to be a student. I think there are things we forget though: like how we would probably argue (to the point of death) certain things we learned in class without having the brain to realise that maybe there are more sides to the issue than what we merely study.
I don’t miss it, you know. I don’t miss taking a course, reading a few things for that course, and thinking that that’s everything there is to know. There’s something about being done a certain type of schooling, having your field and being where you wanted to be. Don’t forget what you went to school all those years to become. You’ve kind of earned that right.
Other than that? Meh. News and popular media will keep you up to snuff with the students. We learn by everything around us, take it as that.