#if I had enough money to pursue what I like to go to uni I'd be so much happier if I had more money to help my sisters I'd be so much more | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

qqueenofhades · 11 months

Note

hello, it's youngin anon once again. i need advice and i have no one to ask, so i figured i could ask you. it's a lot and long, so if you don't want to answer, feel free to ignore.

idk how familiar you are with immigrant child guilt, but it weighs on me immensely. my parents work very hard and i can see the way they struggle. i remember when i was young we didn't even have a bed! me and my siblings slept on cushions. i've seen the insane hours my dad has worked so as to afford me and my siblings a better and more comfortable life. both of my parents have put in a lot of work to give us good opportunities, starting with their immigration to the US.

in nigerian culture, education is extremely important, so as i grew up, my parents have always told me to focus on my education, telling me not to work and it did pay off bc i did end up as valedictorian. college, however is presenting a new set of problems.

my dad, who i am financially dependent on (and who is paying the tuition for the state uni where i'm enrolled) has made it abundantly clear that he thinks med school is the only valid career path. i told him that my roommate was studying comms and he said that she could become a lawyer or something, before looking me dead in the eyes and that wasn't an option for me. with him, it's med school or bust.

as long as i could remember, my parents have been telling me i was going to become a doctor. every time i asked my dad to get me something, he say, i'll do it and in the future, you'll become a doctor, right? and i would agree and that was that. i've answered to all the adults who asked me that i was was going to med school and they would all give me smiles of approval. if i mentioned any other career growing up i'd be ruthlessly shot down or gently persuaded about how much more security there was in medicine.

i was aware in high school that i didn't really want to be a doctor so i sort of set myself up, enrolling under my college's science school so as to cut off my own retreat path. i figured that if i was able to bear it during high school, i could bear it during college. but i can see my own behavior and i know that i don't really like STEM. not that it's a bad field! i just don't have any interest in it. i read the textbooks to learn enough to pass the test and that's it. i don't interact with my classmates or the professors or the material beyond what's needed to get an A. this is in sharp contrast to my history classes which i have been enthralled with. I took a world history class in the first semester enjoyed it immensely. last semester i took a war and violence in africa class and LOVED it. it made me want to become an African historian/Africanist. i talk to my professors, enjoy the readings, the assignments, all the new info i'm getting on the continent where my family originates. i go to my history classes and i want to be there. i want to learn.

i don't know if i could survive academia as a profession because i've seen you posting about the struggles from working in academia and there was a large strike at my school last semester because professors weren't earning enough. if it were a perfect world or if i had lots of money i would love to get my Ph.D focusing on West African history and be a history professor, but it's not, so. i've been thinking about law school as a happy compromise. i could go to law school with a undergrad history degree and if i went to law school i could also pursue JD/MA in History. i'm trying out some law classes next semester to see how i like them.

i'm now scared that if i were to transfer to a different school in my college my scholarship might be reduced. i'm also afraid that i would lose my parents' financial support if i chose to pursue a different career path and i have no actual work experience.

and i understand my parents' very valid concerns! both of them grew up poor in Nigeria and it was their STEM educations that afforded them better lives. they don't want me to experience that level of crushing poverty that heavily defined their youth. my mom tells me about her younger brother in Nigeria who struggles to get work with his masters. my dad tells me about co-workers' children who can't get jobs in their field of profession and have to work whatever jobs come their way. from what i've seen on the news, the future job market looks bad for the young people (around the world!). millennials are having problems and my generation isn't set to do much better.

is it fair to my parents to just disregard that and pursue work in the humanities? i want to do what i want, to just live my life, but it feels like it's not just my life. it would feel so selfish to just risk that all. whenever i talk to my parents about their journey in the US i feel like i should just suck it all up and go to med school. if my parents could suffer all of that, who i am to complain? do my struggles compare?

i feel like my sense of pragmatism and idealism are warring against each other. I don't like STEM, I'm good at it, good enough to get good grades in the classes, but it's not something i enjoy doing, but there's more job security. i love history and the humanities as a whole, but i might struggle with employment.

i'm semi-familiar with the path i would need to take to become a doctor. i would have to make it into med school (high GPA, experience in science research/labs, shadowing healthcare professionals, good recommendations, etc.), survive med school, survive residency (during which residents are worked like dogs), complete fellowships, and then i would be able to practice independently. and that would probably occupy the majority of my time. people have told me that med school is hard even for people that like medicine. for me who is just tolerating it, can i do it? and what about any future patients? is it fair to them?

my mom has always said that i could just get my second degree in whatever i wanted after i became a doctor, but i don't know if i would have the mental strength/energy/free time to go back to school after med school. i feel like if i grit my teeth and bared it for all my twenties i would lose the drive to do it my thirties. it feels like i've been putting off my living my life for my entire life. in middle school i thought about high school, in high school about college, and in college about post-graduate life. i'm tired of this constant look towards the future, but it's the only thing i know how to do. my brain is constantly asking "okay, and then what?"

if i go to med school and realize that i really can't do it, then i'll be trapped. it'll be too much debt to walk away from, too many years of my life dedicated towards that end goal of becoming a doctor. i feel like if i'm going to change my future plans, i should do it before sooner rather than later. 19 isn't too late to walk back but 26 might be.

but it's not like pursuing a career closer to what i want would be easier.

there's always this big fear in the background of, what if i fail? what if i risk it all to go to law school and i don't make it in? or i end up in a low-paying law job saddled with hundreds of thousands in student debt? or even if i make it to biglaw, i still end up burned out from all the hours that they work? wouldn't i still be miserable? i'm not super familiar with how law school works but i've done some lurking around @artielu's blog and law seems like something i should also go into in only if i'm sure.

(i'm not. i'm not sure of anything really.)

it feels like no matter what i'm going to be unhappy in the future. maybe everyone feels this way, maybe a certain level of unhappiness is normal in adult life. it just makes me feel so frustrated because i'm struggling so hard for what? idk. i'm also so desperately scared. i'm scared that one day i'll wake up in the my forties/fifties and realize that i hate my life. maybe i'll look back on this and lament how spoiled/whiny i was. idk. idk.

i'm not looking for an answer to this dilemma, i know this is a decision i'll have to make for myself, but i would appreciate any advice or even words of encouragement. thank you.

Welp. Okay, first of all, I am giving you a big virtual hug and sitting you down at your coffeeshop of choice. So imagine us talking there.

Second, thanks for pouring out your heart to me about this and your various other comments and chats over the years. I only know you as one of my favorite (shh) Tumblr anons on the internet, but I have always seen how thoughtful, smart, and hard-working you are, and I don't take it lightly that you trust me to listen to you and to give you good advice. (Or uh, let's hope, at least not bad advice? Jury's out.) Likewise, I'm absolutely sure that immigrant-child guilt is something to which a lot of my followers can very much relate, and would be happy to talk with you about. So if you are one of said followers and you'd like to encourage anon to reach out to you, please drop a note in the replies! I can't speak to this from personal experience, but I'd love to help connect you to others in your situation. Because yes, it IS absolutely a universal struggle for first- or second-gen immigrant kids: balancing cultural expectations of parents, American opportunities, feeling guilty if you do what you want, etc etc.

Third, and this is just me talking: if you absolutely feel this way, then no, I don't think you should go to medical school. I realize that this is far easier said than done, but if you continue to feel this strongly about it, then... you shouldn't be expected to do it, and that's just something that everyone in your family will have to come to terms with. After all, your parents came to America so you could be raised as an American, and there would be multiple pathways to success -- not whatever just they themselves had to do in order to get here in the first place. I'm afraid that you'll eventually have to bite the bullet and have an honest talk with your parents about this, but it may help if you present this as both your own success and THEIR success. After all, you're smart, talented, you have so many options, and you'll clearly succeed at whatever you choose to do. And that means THEY did their job right: they worked hard, they raised you right, they brought you to a place where there ISN'T just one narrow pathway to having a fulfilling and prestigious career. It doesn't mean they "failed" to make you a doctor. It means they succeeded in making YOU, and opening up so many more things for you to do.

Obviously: that's going to be hard either way, your parents are probably going to be upset, and that's very tough to deal with, especially if you're a close family unit and if you're financially dependent on them. You're the only one who can choose when to have the conversation and what might come of it, but it's still something that you do have the right to do. If you want to research other aid options or scholarship packages, or reach out to financial aid/admissions officers at other schools to see what it might take to transfer (that is, if you need to transfer), that's your right to do. You're an adult now and you have the right to take legal and personal responsibility for your own life. If you know what you want to do and how you want to do it: then again, isn't that why your parents came here? Isn't that what they were working to achieve?

Yes, academia is hard. No, there's no guarantee of getting a job. But there isn't the guarantee of getting a job in medicine either, especially if it's something you're forcing yourself to do and which (as you note) would impact negatively on you, your colleagues, and the patients you would be expected to serve. Especially post-Covid and in the American healthcare system: being a doctor/nurse/healthcare professional SUCKS! Even if you like it and feel called to do it, it still sucks, and the only people earning a lot of money from it are the senior/career/specialist types (as is the case in every field). Of course your parents have expectations and dreams for you, but they also don't get the right to control/dictate your entire adult life just by virtue of deciding to bring you into the world. After all, they did that, and that means embracing you as a person with your own choices. (And this goes for all people with controlling/bossy parents, regardless of immigrant or non-immigrant background). So again: this is what they wanted for you, and you've paid that off already.

I absolutely feel the "I spend all my time thinking/worrying about the future and being scared that I'll end up wasting my life" thing, which I think is common to a lot of high-achieving smart people (we are terminal overthinkers to a one). I can tell you now that life has a way of surprising you, and when you get a little older, you start becoming more comfortable with yourself, your accomplishments, your talents, and knowing what you're good at. So I don't think you will find that you've wasted anything. Likewise, when it comes to studying for advanced degrees in history: do you think it might help with your parents if you agreed to pursue a name-brand school? It's still not guaranteed, but trust me, going to a place like Harvard or Yale makes it tremendously easier to get a job or a future opportunity just by virtue of having that name on your CV and the people you will meet, and I have no doubt that you would be able to get in. As well, I don't really think your parents could argue with you going to an Ivy League, or think that you weren't applying yourself.

Likewise, if there is anything I can do to support you in this, please feel free to message me privately/off anon. I will write a letter of recommendation for you, I will see if I know a person who knows a person, I will help look at application materials, so forth and etc. I mean it: I WILL help you in the real world if I possibly can. I'm sure you have tons of other enthusiastic recommenders, but still. Also, I will say that despite the current (terrible) academic job market, I have seen quite a few openings for professors of African history/African studies/African-American literature and culture, and that's just in the US. There are also lots of opportunities around the world.

Anyway: I hope that's helpful to start with. I am giving you all the hugs. Please reach out to me again (especially via private message) if I can help with this in more tangible ways. And likewise, if any of my followers would like anon to reach out to them: please make a note in the replies. We can do this together.

#anonymous #ask #school stuff #academia: not even once #long post

49 notes · View notes

diaryoftheunidropout · 1 year

Text

DAY 78

I totally missed day 69. Also, there are now more days between the day I dropped out of university and today than there are between today and the release of Heartstopper season 2 (76 days) and I think that's cool, insane, and insanely cool.

I'm at my grandma's right now. It doesn't feel like life is quiet nor peaceful. I still get some paranoia at night, I still feel anxious about the future, I still feel annoyed at my mom for not taking care of herself. But I do feel loved, so at least I have that.

The way I write on here is quite inspiring for a potential future book. The thing is, I need to start writing a first book before I get there. I have ideas. I have a whole main character planned out, some specific scenes planned out, but the main plot is still sort of blurry so I can't really start writing anything until I have figured that out and the second main character. Maybe I should look writing prompts online and reappropriate them? I wish I could ask Alice for tips on how she did it. Does it. Anyway.

My grandparents on my mother's side are apparently worried about what I'll do with my future. They actually have no idea I lost all will to ever go back to university/school, and it's so taboo for them they refuse to ask me. They'd rather ask my mom, or my grandma on my dad's side, probably because they're too afraid of hearing the truth. The truth, ah the truth, the disappointing truth that, just like all of my other cousins, I will never pursue long studies and have some big diploma they can brag about to the rest of the family, to their neighbors, to their friends. I think they'd rather hear me say I hate my life for the next three to five years but get a shiny piece of paper, than hear me say I am at peace and happy with my life even if that means never pursuing big studies.

I told all that to my therapist a while ago and she said my grandparents probably wouldn't be disappointed, just sad, but considering how they rejected and insultee my mom when she dropped out of university, I think I am allowed to doubt they would take the news well.

Talking about my therapist, I haven't gone in probably a month now and my therapist was kind enough to text me to ask how I was. I quickly explained the whole business of me stopping all my medication because I didn't trust the psychiatrist I saw (I'd told her a bit about it in person too) and she said she understood but I probably should still have some psychological support, even without any medication. I think it's worthless going to therapy without medication in my case, just as it is at least partly worthless to take medication without going to therapy but... I don't know.

I'm still definitely psychologically unstable, but most days I manage quite okay. Recently I was finally able to book my flight tickets to go to the US this summer, which had been stressing me out non stop because it was always in the back of my mind but knowing I was going to have to spend so much money when I have no income was kind of scary. But I did it!! And now I can look forward to something fun this summer. New, exciting, kind of scary, but mostly fun I think. I want to quote "Nick and Charlie" right now:

"We were both fucking terrified and the whole thing was kind of terrible because we were fucking terrified. But it was good too, so good, because we were a mess of emotions, and we were scared and excited, and everything felt new. So, this sort of feels like that."

I think this quote actually reflects my entire life quite well right now. There's good in making such a big change but it's all so new and I have no idea where it's going, which is just as exciting as it is daunting.

Lately, I've been feeling really lonely. I've kept saying that my life was in Paris, but I'm not so sure anymore. I used to have a whole friend group in uni that I would see often. But recently, I've been a lot less close to my "uni best friend", and since they're often the one organizing stuff and they stopped inviting me to the stuff they all do together, I've been more and more isolated. It started when one night I was opening up about how I was feeling miserable and they told me that it probably wasn't that bad considering they'd had depressed friends who ended up in the psych ward or couldn't get out of bed. Except I still have days where I can't get out of bed, except I don't brag about it, obviously. And I still have lots of negative behaviors like not feeding myself properly, like, ever, and also self-harming, terrible sleeping habits... And this "best friend", they knew a lot of that, they knew that barely a couple weeks prior I had been preparing a suicide attempt. And they still told me I didn't have it that bad. And it hurt me so much, and I didn't want to confront them because, fuck, I just don't have the will nor energy for that. So I just started texting them a lot less, caring about them a lot less, checking up on them a lot less. And apparently they didn't really care so they did pretty much the same, and they seized that opportunity to also not include me in the friend group anymore. So basically, the only friend I have left in Paris is my chosen godmother, whom I actually went to Disneyland with recently. Gosh, I love her so much. She cares for me so much.

So yeah, otherwise, I have one friend 350km away in one direction, another one 350km away in the opposite direction, and one friend in Paris. Cool! I'm usually very independant but, I don't know. I still feel lonely. Maybe even lonelier lately because my mom has been so... elsewhere. Not distant, just elsewhere. She's so in her fucking bubble of "I need to work out this many hours a day and massage my face this many hours a day and wear this belt that's supposed to make me sweat to lose weight this many hours a day, and take this many pills a day that are supposed to make me prettier, skinnier, with stronger hair, whiter teeth" and also CONSTANTLY pursuing men that are going to break her heart over and over again. It drives me fucking insane and I am so glad I don't live with her anymore because it would probably drive me so mad I would get violent and never talk to her. Or maybe it's all my fault. Maybe she wouldn't feel the need to run after bastards if I was still at home with her: but for my own good, I cannot. So it's either I am selfish and try to salvage the little in me that's salvageable, or I protect my mother for as long as I can. It's fucking unbearable. Also, the only way I could ever feel completely okay would be either if she got better, or if I just stopped loving her and caring about her. And both sound about as impossible as the other. So, that's that.

Sorry for ending this all abruptly but I feel overwhelmed and I'm done getting shit off my chest today. Time to distract myself.

Buh-bye.

0 notes