on ivy masked insecurity

and institutional stories

Going back to school when we want to change our work can be super helpful.

No. Not for the new skills. Not for the connections. You can go create them elsewhere.

Going back to school helps us by giving us a story.

It’s a story we get to tell ourselves.

It’s a story we get to tell the others.

I’m back in school, studying law, sounds a lot better than, I’m still at that job I hate, but I’m working on a few projects. I’m looking for my next steps and am engaged in some self directed learning.

‘Going back to school’ is a kind of shorthand that everyone understands.

‘Creating a path for myself’…

That sounds weird.

School doesn’t condition us for that.

Schooling conditions us to seek out the ‘right answer’.

It is a device primarily focused on socialization and expectation realization rather than discovery and learning.

So.

A lot of the time when ‘we go back to school’ to change careers, what we’re actually saying is: This is a story that I can tell myself and others that they understand so that I …