Back to school

Today I sent a form requesting to re-enter my Masters program in September this year. I've thought a lot about why I'm going back to school, and why it has taken me so long to finish this program. Coincidentally, I'm reading an interesting bit in a book right now about motivation and education. I figure I entered this degree for all the wrong reasons. I did well in my Bachelors because I loved playing piano and I wanted to teach it. But I decided to do a Masters on a whim really, partly because I was told I'd be good at it, partly because everyone else seemed to be getting a post-graduate degree.

So why go back to it? Now that I've decided to teach English, there isn't a need for an M.A. in musicology, is there? Of course, I feel some obligation to finish it. A year ago, that used to be my primary reason for returning to my studies, and of course the very thought of going back resulted in feelings of reluctance and dread. However, after three years of doing something completely different, I feel rested and content, and ready to begin again.

"To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical. Both kinds of climbers place one foot in front of the other. Both breathe in and out at the same rate. Both stop when tired. Both go forward when rested. But what a difference! the ego-climber is like an instrument that's out of adjustment. He puts his foot down an instant too soon or too late. He's likely to miss a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees. He goes on when the sloppiness of his step shows he's tired...He goes too fast or too slow for the conditions and when he talks his talk is forever about somewhere else, something else. He's here but he's not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be farther up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then it will be 'here'. What he's looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn't want that because it is all around him. Every step's an effort, both physically and spiritually, because he imagines his goal to be external and distant."

- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance