Flying By

I had a wonderful talk with my Anthropology Professor last night, it lasted for at least an hour after class. She is an amazingly honest and intelligent woman. I am really enjoying her class. It’s full of very informative people and the discussions we have are some of the best I have engaged in at school. I’m sure my perfect score on the first test helped my exhuberance for last nights class. My whole reason for writing this is that during the conversation last night, C.J. helped me realize that so many other women have similar fears about their education and career choices. I often ask myself if I’m good enough, am I simply fooling everyone, or is the work just not that hard. Once she mentioned that she(along with other women she has known) too had those fears when she went back to school for the third time, I came to my own conclusion about why we feel this way. Even today, women are still raised in this society to go to college, get married, and start a family. So when a woman who did not follow the traditional role…either she didn’t get married and have children before she was 30, or she went to college later, their is a part in her that was ingrained maybe not by her parents, but by her surroundings that says “you didn’t follow the plan, so you are not good enough.” I feel much more comfortable with my decision to further my education beyond the B.A. now, and I’m sure those fears will follow me whereever I go. But now I am able to recognize them for what I belive they are, shrapnel from a social mentality I never fully subscribed to based in a society where I’ve never fully fit in. And that makes me smile….