Contrary Conversations

As my departure date approaches, I find myself having more and more conversations about why I'm leaving. Which, invariably, include divulging the information that I'm going to grad school, that I'm going to grad school for Evolutionary Anthropology (maybe the most syllabic major ever), and that I'm going to grad school in England.

How, when you're talking to coworkers at a local restaurant chain who are lifetime servers, do you not sound like a pompous such and such? It's a tad stressful.

I don't know if I managed to retain everyone's liking of me, but I think I pulled it off. Last night was my last night, which everyone found out about halfway through the shift. Then came the questions. My tactic is to downplay the event in general, which works well for grad school and my major: "Oh, you know I'm not even going to try to get a job in my field right now, so I'll just go to school." "Oh, it's not that big a deal, it's just the study of the development of all things human.", "Hahaha, yeah, it sounds good, but who knows if I'll find a job!" and other variants on that theme. England, though, that's tough to downplay. Mostly I try to be quiet about it, say that I'm excited and nervous, but that I'm looking forward to it.

Alternately, I find when someone challenges my decision to go to grad school in another country in a "weird" major, I snap back pretty quickly. One man flat out laughed when I told him my major and skeptically asked what I thought I'd be able to do with it. At which point I popped into a more authoritative stance, tone of voice, and level of eye contact, listing the various jobs I was hoping to procure after I graduate. Then, I'm not afraid to sound pompous at all.

I've decided that I just have to own my plans. They're what I want to do, and that's that. Playing games to explain what I've decided to do isn't fair to me or the people I'm talking to.

In any case, this whole post is a little ridiculous. Complaining about having conversations about this wonderful opportunity I have? Man, I can't imagine being other 2009 graduates who are fighting to get a job, whose "future plans" conversations are akin to singletons being asked if they've a man yet. So huzzah for future plans, and all you skeptics can suck it!