Graduate student installation complete. The reboot was successful and I am running in student mode again. At the beginning of the semester, I wrote about my transition from a working professional to a full-time student. Now, at the end, I can truly say the transition is complete.
I was only gone from the academics arena for two years but that was long enough to become rusty, especially in a major like engineering.
I was sitting in class one day and suddenly the thought, “Wow I AM a graduate student” hit me like a tidal wave. I checked the date and it was exactly 3 months after I had landed in LA. That’s how long it took to really switch gears. You may be wondering – well what were you doing those first 3 months then? That is a good question. I relocated, learned how to structure my time, adjusted to having multiple roommates all over again in a small space, and started to live on a constrained budget.
I won’t say all of that has been 100% successful 100% of the time, but I established a schedule that worked for me. I’m comfortable now with the student routine, and that took the longest to adapt to.
I vouch for the fact that it can be done—going back to school full-time may appear daunting at first, but you get the hang of it soon and it becomes doable!
Published on December 16th, 2015
Last updated on August 29th, 2017