likethebeer | reminders of the last big recession

Our recent economic woes unfortunately remind me of sitting in an office in BU talking to a woman about how I wanted to go to grad school (in 1991), and her saying to me that, well, more people apply to grad school during recessions and implying that's why I was doing it (I don't know if there was a national recession, but MA, where I was living at that time, there was a 9.1% unemployment rate at the time).

Talking to her definitely sunk my stomach. Over the years, I've yelled in my head, "Lady! If I wanted to avoid life by going to grad school, I just could have gone to grad school for writing. WHY would I want to take more classes in AH, learn a new damned language [French] and go through all this shit if I'd wanted to avoid a recession?"

But at the age of 23-24, I certainly didn't do it. Nor did I point out that going in ART HISTORY ain't a way of avoiding economic uncertainties.

Sometimes I'd like to find that woman I'd spoken to and tell her she was an ass.