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November 22, 2005
Quitters Never Cheat and Cheaters Never Quit (Or Something Like That)
Today I signed up for two classes in the upcoming semester. My schedule has me classified as follows:
College: Graduate School
Degree: Master of Science
Major: Applied Mathematics
What classes, then, did this graduate applied mathematician sign up for? Complex Analysis? Partial Differential Equations? Non-Riemannian Hyperspheres? NO! Technical Communication: Editing and Visual Principles in Technical Communication.
Is this the schedule of a mathematician? No. Is this what I want to study? Yes. Why? I'm a piss-poor mathematician.
It's been difficult to admit openly, though the idea must have been festering for a while.
I looked into my initial screening tests at work. In all of the important, technical areas I literally scored the bare minimum--on the nose. By boss told me, though, that I got the highest score of anyone in spelling. This was disconcerting, but I got over it.
All of my coworkers, without exception, loathe writing. I (obviously) don't. I've decided my role in the workplace should exploit my joy in writing instead of my mediocre technical skills.
I can't help feeling, though, that I'm selling out for something "easy." The Communication Department, after all, isn't known for being a repository of world-changing knowledge. I'm pretty sure no technical writers were on staff at Los Alamos or present at the signing of the Magna Carta--but neither was the Buddha.
Have I sold out?
Posted by james at November 22, 2005 09:11 PM
Comments
No way. Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if we could all do what we enjoy and enjoy what we do? You've already worked your ass off in school (like me) - and succeeded beautifully. You have nothing to prove - enjoy.
Posted by: jodi at November 22, 2005 10:46 PM
No, you haven't sold out. You are just realizing what you are good at isn't what you thought it was all these years. I think all of us are learning that lesson lately. And the communications department may not come up with the world changing knowledge, but it's hardly going to change the world if nobody can read it for shit.
Posted by: jarrad at November 23, 2005 02:21 PM