# Afraid to Finish School



## Whitney (Oct 2, 2008)

Anyone else have this problem? I'm in grad school and all I have left is to finish my thesis. I am having trouble working on it because (in part) I think I am afraid of what comes next. Any advice on how to keep working even though I'm afraid of finishing?


----------



## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

Well it's a big world, I'd be scared too. Especially armed with a degree you'd think there'd be an obvious "what's next" stepping stone. We've had them all our lives. Elementary school, middle school, high school, university, grad school...and then? It's totally up to us! There's a bit of fear that comes with the freedom (at least for me) because life is short. I'd like to get right on that path that I'm supposed to be on rather than floundering among options that don't work out.


----------



## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

Your just 24 and your already ABD? Thats a lighting pace for grad school.


note: I have no useful advice, just making a random comment.


----------



## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

Well, some Master's programs are just a year... Some friends of mine are graduating this spring with their BSc at 22 so 24 seems about right!


----------



## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

seafolly said:


> Well, some Master's programs are just a year... Some friends of mine are graduating this spring with their BSc at 22 so 24 seems about right!


One of my friends took 19 years to get a phd. We still make fun of him for this.


----------



## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

Oh wow! I'd probably take the same amount of time with my anxiety troubles, haha. I won't pass this on to a friend of mine...he's on his third year of his PhD (which is normal!) and doesn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. The joys of chemistry - the experiments work or they don't.


----------



## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

LALoner said:


> One of my friends took 19 years to get a phd. We still make fun of him for this.


My brother was a college student for much of the time from 1970-1994. He never got a PhD, but got to ABD level in three PhD programs. His failure to write any thesis was paid for with fellowships of $115,000 (adjust for inflation as that was back in the 1980s).

I can tell you what came next for him: screaming "There is no job on earth that requires my education!" Which then led him to get a law degree and he got an MBA at the same time. He's never practiced law.

Then he went on to earn $3,000 a year grading business law exams till retirement at age 55.

He feels education has value in itself, a view one best take after collecting a staggering amount of education, yet earning far less than those who never went to college at all.

Still addicted to education, he's been taking French classes for the last several years. He was thrilled when someone mistook him for a French Canadian upon hearing his fluency.


----------



## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

You've come this far. You owe it to yourself to finish.


----------



## JamieHasAnxiety (Feb 15, 2011)

Finish school? Dude your doing great just by being IN school. Wish I had the courage to get back into some schoolin'. D:


----------

