#1 September 29th, 2005 06:05 PM

pia

Member

monkey mind

Hello Everyone

I've decided to start hanging out here at the ISM forum and share my opinions with you all .. well I'll do that if I can actually keep the same opinion for a long enough period of time to be able to type it and click submit.

See .. thats my problem .. I am indecisive and fickle and everytime I think I really believe in something or feel passionate about a concept or idea .. then something happens or occurs to me and suddenly the coin is flipped and I see another side of the situation. mmmm.. so I have a lot of internal argument going on in my head.

The upside of this personality trait (or habit of thought or whatever it is) is that I am versatile and adaptable to different situations.

The downside (apart from coming across as superficial) is that I spend too much time thinking about doing stuff and not enough time doing it.

At the moment the main question that is going round in my head is whether or not I should or will continue my uni degree .. I dont know if I really need/want a degree, if I should finish it while I am still young or if I should travel and explore life while I am still young and study later. The advice people keep giving me is 'study while you are young' but I dont understand why ... can't I sit and learn later when I am bored of travelling and being wild and free?

Maybe it is not so much that I am not enjoying studying, but more that I am not enjoying what I am studying. I find the subject interesting and positive but I am not passionate about it .. When I left school I thought I wanted to go to art school .. but then I thought that it was kind of self indulgent and that I should study something more useful. maybe I think too much. maybe I should just be happy and not worry about what the right thing to do is.
Anyone got any advice or thoughts or wisdom to pass on to me about this matter ?

thecatman

Member

Re: monkey mind

I don't want to get too deep into political stuff right now, but would suffice to say that you probably should learn more about what's happening in the world because - like that bumper sticker slogan says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!"  I'd also reccomend avoiding postmodernist thinking.  It's brought this world nothing but confusion and apathy.  Evil at least servs as a motivation to act, and there's certainly no shortage of evil in the world today, though many are too afraid to let themselves see it for what it really is.  Seek the truth and the truth will set you free!

pia

Member

Re: monkey mind

I don't want to get too deep into political stuff right now, but would suffice to say that you probably should learn more about what's happening in the world because - like that bumper sticker slogan says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!"  I'd also reccomend avoiding postmodernist thinking.  It's brought this world nothing but confusion and apathy.  Evil at least servs as a motivation to act, and there's certainly no shortage of evil in the world today, though many are too afraid to let themselves see it for what it really is.  Seek the truth and the truth will set you free!

Geezus! I am trying to seek the truth .. it's not that easy - as you must know.
Are you saying that I should learn more about the world because if I did that I would be less self obsessed .. or self important .. and realise that there are bigger problems in the world then those that are on my little plate ?
'cos I know that already .. and I am learning about the world all the time .. I believe that before anyone can change the world (as in save the world, cos we are all changing it one way or another whether that is our intention or not) that we have to sort out ourselves .. so that is what I am trying to do.
Of course if there is a protest or campaign that I believe in I participate, but I am not going to go out and look for causes to fight.
??? what were you getting at .. without going in too deep with the political stuff

thecatman

Member

Re: monkey mind

I am indecisive and fickle and everytime I think I really believe in something or feel passionate about a concept or idea .. then something happens or occurs to me and suddenly the coin is flipped and I see another side of the situation.

Being the politically minded person that I am, when I read that I thought you were talking about feeling passionate about stuff in the world.  But maybe you were just talking about stuff in your own life or relationships or whatever.

I don't know any of the details of your life or anything, so I can't give any specific advice to you at this point.  You seem quite intelligent though, and you're certainly quite attractive, so I'm thinking that things will proably fall into place for you quite nicely.  Feel free to message me if you wanna talk more.

SCSIgirl

Member

Re: monkey mind

Hello Everyone

I've decided to start hanging out here at the ISM forum and share my opinions with you all .. well I'll do that if I can actually keep the same opinion for a long enough period of time to be able to type it and click submit.

>>>>  snipped for brevity  <<<<

Sorry gang,  but Pontius Pilate was right:  "What is truth?  Is truth not a changing law?  Is my truth the same as yours?"  Only YOUR heart knows truth.

Finish your first 4 years.  Don't worry about going out to see the world.  It WILL always be there.  I lived through the Cold War and shelters in the back yard.  We have no danger like that now.  If a meteor hits the earth,  you're not goning on vacation anyway.  You've got the next 100 years to travel.  (Yes, you ARE going to live to 122).

I finished my BA and started my MA just to stay out of the draft  (I was number 15).  They came and got me anyway.  After I served 2 years for a priest,  I tried to go back and finish the MA.  I got the classes completed,  but couldn't get the thesis done.  I was out of "student mode" and I was trying to earn a living.

We all hit doldrums.  At one point you probably wanted to drop out of high school.  It is too hard to go back.  If you are short on dicipline,  going back will be impossible.  At least get your 1st degree;  then travel or goof off if you want.  You may realize  (as I did) that you weren't going to utilize the 2nd degree, anyway.  Since you are in the "student mode" now,  make use of it and complete your ed.  It will serve you well in the long run.

The Scuzzy Oracle has spoken.

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"Apple of my Eye", "bated breath", "brave new world", "caught red-handed" - all coined by Shakespeare.

pia

Member

Re: monkey mind

[QUOTE=thecatman]Being the politically minded person that I am, when I read that I thought you were talking about feeling passionate about stuff in the world.  But maybe you were just talking about stuff in your own life or relationships or whatever.

I was talking about everything stuff in the world and stuff in my own life and relationships. I have that feeling with alot of things... to a degree.. i mean i still have my own beliefes that are pretty steadfast.. its just that i feel there is always a flip side or a justification to every argument.
I am sure things will work out as well .. they always do one way or another.
I've decided to try and stop worrying about the future .. my future to be more specific. and just get on with what i need to do. mmm having said that right now i need to study alot.
xox

pia

Member

Re: monkey mind

Sorry gang,  but Pontius Pilate was right:  "What is truth?  Is truth not a changing law?  Is my truth the same as yours?"  Only YOUR heart knows truth.

Finish your first 4 years.  Don't worry about going out to see the world.  It WILL always be there.  I lived through the Cold War and shelters in the back yard.  We have no danger like that now.  If a meteor hits the earth,  you're not goning on vacation anyway.  You've got the next 100 years to travel.  (Yes, you ARE going to live to 122).

I finished my BA and started my MA just to stay out of the draft  (I was number 15).  They came and got me anyway.  After I served 2 years for a priest,  I tried to go back and finish the MA.  I got the classes completed,  but couldn't get the thesis done.  I was out of "student mode" and I was trying to earn a living.

We all hit doldrums.  At one point you probably wanted to drop out of high school.  It is too hard to go back.  If you are short on dicipline,  going back will be impossible.  At least get your 1st degree;  then travel or goof off if you want.  You may realize  (as I did) that you weren't going to utilize the 2nd degree, anyway.  Since you are in the "student mode" now,  make use of it and complete your ed.  It will serve you well in the long run.

The Scuzzy Oracle has spoken.

pia

Member

Re: monkey mind

Sorry gang,  but Pontius Pilate was right:  "What is truth?  Is truth not a changing law?  Is my truth the same as yours?"  Only YOUR heart knows truth.

Finish your first 4 years.  Don't worry about going out to see the world.  It WILL always be there.  I lived through the Cold War and shelters in the back yard.  We have no danger like that now.  If a meteor hits the earth,  you're not goning on vacation anyway.  You've got the next 100 years to travel.  (Yes, you ARE going to live to 122).

I finished my BA and started my MA just to stay out of the draft  (I was number 15).  They came and got me anyway.  After I served 2 years for a priest,  I tried to go back and finish the MA.  I got the classes completed,  but couldn't get the thesis done.  I was out of "student mode" and I was trying to earn a living.

We all hit doldrums.  At one point you probably wanted to drop out of high school.  It is too hard to go back.  If you are short on dicipline,  going back will be impossible.  At least get your 1st degree;  then travel or goof off if you want.  You may realize  (as I did) that you weren't going to utilize the 2nd degree, anyway.  Since you are in the "student mode" now,  make use of it and complete your ed.  It will serve you well in the long run.

The Scuzzy Oracle has spoken.

thanx for your advice
You are right .. at one point i did want to drop out of high school and then i did ! My best friend and I both decided we didnt need to be there anymore and we were going to go to india instead .. so we just left - it was 2 mnths before i was finished yr12 .. i ended up getting my HSC anyway because i had enough points already, but i didnt know that when i made the decision to leave. It felt pretty liberating.
But i think now that i have had that liberating experience of just saying fuck it i'm out of here... i should get some discipline and just finish it now that i've started it.
I like the pontius pilate quote too.

Manring

Member

Re: monkey mind

pia,

Being of somewhat sound mind and of a much more advanced age than are you, I strongly advise doing the school, getting the degree, and then hitting the road.

If you are at all anything like me, it is very tempting--even if you have felt the liberating feeling of saying "aww, fuck it, I'm out of here..."--to succumb to the pull of places yet unvisited.

I hit the road before high school, then finished high school '71), then hit the road in a big way after, even though I had a free ride at a wonderful University. My thinking was that I was determined to find out how much I could learn on my own, in my own way. And while I think I've done pretty damned good, it is obvious to me that I would have been better off to get the degree.

The other big thing that happens, to many of us, is that we can easily become mired in the everyday of life; relationships, marriage, kids, etc, and university gets put off further and further. I ended up with a child, single-parenting, running my own biz to stay afloat, and keeping it altogether. No way could I have added the pursuit of a degree to that load.

So...never did get a paper degree of any sort, though I am extremely self-sufficient, a very proud parent of an equally self-sufficient daughter (who now has her own child, too, which has delayed her college career...dang it all) and am back on the road in an even bigger way than I ever was.

But if I had that degree, different doors would open, to be very sure.

Best of luck, pia, in whichever path you choose,

Manring

At the moment the main question that is going round in my head is whether or not I should or will continue my uni degree .. I dont know if I really need/want a degree, if I should finish it while I am still young or if I should travel and explore life while I am still young and study later. The advice people keep giving me is 'study while you are young' but I dont understand why ... can't I sit and learn later when I am bored of travelling and being wild and free?

Anyone got any advice or thoughts or wisdom to pass on to me about this matter ?

Belgareth

Member

Re: monkey mind

Pia,

I know that we all have different approaches to life and, for some, the hassle of weighing things up is a pain in the butt.  I am generally pragmatic in my approach to life and I tend to weight to pros and cons before jumping into anything. The few times in my life when I have been totally egocentric and jumped into something with both feet without considering the consequences, I have ended up to my neck in problems further down the line.

However, before you finalise your decision, consider this - it becomes more difficult to absorb and retain new information as your age increases. A young child takes massive quantities of new data in, stores it and recalls it very easily. By your mid twenties, the rate of absorption has fallen to almost half. If you postpone your further education now, it will become increasing hard for you to continue with it later.

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