Tuesday, June 25, 2013

How much education is too much education?

I am a failure...I have had a ridiculous amount of singles ward drama and have not written about any of it!! I blame school. For the past year, graduate school has pretty much consumed my life. But before I turn this into a rant about how hard school is, lets take this and bring it back to the ever present topic of singles ward. How much education is too much? Especially for women!! The prophet and many other church leaders have advised its members (particularly its ysa members) to get as much education as possible. Maybe this is just how my perhaps overly literal mind works, but I hear that and think, "Get my PhD? M.D? Queen of America? Ok! The sky is the limit!!" The truth is, I am fine with this. I like school...well, lets just say I like to learn. School is hard, but ultimately, I like the challenge and I think I am good at school. However, recently it has come to my attention that guys do not want to marry a girl who is more educated than them. Ummm....I kind of wish this little golden nugget had been shared with me before I started working on my Master's degree at the ripe age of 21! Even just the other week I was sitting in sacrament meeting and the speaker (not a young single adult, but an older man talking about how now is the time to get our education) says "Guys, do you really want to marry a girl who has more education than you?" I realize he was just trying to light a fire under the mens' rears, but I can't help but think "Ummm...thank you for reminding me of one of the many reasons I am still single and for reminding all of the men in my singles ward that, yea, they probably do not want to marry me until they have attained their PhD.'s!" I asked one of my good male-friends for his opinion on that matter. This guy very politely, but truthfully, informed me that the fact that I am in graduate school is intimidating. It is not a bad thing, and is certainly something men I am dating should know, but I should avoid informing men right from the beginning that I am in graduate school. Turns out this is pretty hard to do, as one of the very first getting-to-know-you questions is, "So, are you in school right now?" I respond, "Yes," to which they ask, "Oh, cool, whats your major?," to which I reply, "Psychology," and then they say something like "Cool, what do you want to do with that?" or "are you going to go to graduate school?" or "so, are you a freshmen or sophomore or what?" Basically, the conversation almost always ends up in me sheepishly admitting that I am in graduate school. Its super lame that my intelligence and ambition has turned into something I feel compelled to hide. Solution? Maybe I should just spend all my free time at the medical school and shoot for a young doctor not intimidated by my meager Master's degree!

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