The Future Will Be Critiqued

After working in customer service and tech for 30 years, I am finally ready to move on to better things. What could possibly be better than tech, you ask? Well – pretty much anything, but specifically – Academia.

The MLS degree that I obtained in 2016 should have allowed me to find work in Academic Librarianship, but it has been a lot more difficult than originally expected. I am also finding myself perpetually pulled back to Sociological and Cultural Criticism.

I am certain that there are people reading this right now thinking, “well of course you are Chantale – that is what you were built for and you have basically been doing it already through social media”, and although I agree with the sentiment, it has taken me a long time to get to the place where I realize that it really is my path. One person, in particular, has told me weekly (sometimes daily) for the past 8 years that I need to return to Sociology.

So now that I am saying this (or typing it) OUT LOUD, where do I go from here? What are my options? Go back to school for a PhD and become a Sociology professor? Go back to school for a second Masters in Sociology/Social Science and then pursue an Academic librarianship position as a subject specialist? Jump into a research job? Just start writing and hope for the best?

At 45, it is difficult to make the decision to go back for a PhD, but – if I don’t do it – I will regret it in the future. So, I think that I need to set my fears aside and just DO IT. Although it might take me until my early 50s before I complete the dissertation, the upside is that the majority of programs in Sociology offer full-ride fellowships if you are interested in doing research that makes sense for their institution. They also offer the ability to get in the classroom right away (within a year of beginning the program) so that experience won’t be something I would have to wait until the end to partake in.

So what now? Honestly – I have made this decision so many times, started and stopped studying for the GRE, started and stopped looking into program applications, started and stopped writing essays and compiling my previous work, that it is daunting. But the first step is to simply move forward. Stop doubting myself. This is TRULY my calling and I need to follow it. Everything in my life ALWAYS comes back to Sociology. The universe has been telling me for years that I need to do this. It is time to start listening and follow through.

Get ready to follow this next journey! I am excited and I hope that I have the support of everyone that I care about because it will be a long, hard road, but I can TOTALLY do it. And who knows, this might also help me meet that other goal of eventually living in the City. If you know me, you know what that means. It has been a goal since I was 8 and I believe that this is the path that I need to follow to finally meet that goal!

Time to study for the GRE!

Peace, Chantale