Your Intellectual Life After Academia

Now that I have been out of school for almost two months, and fully employed for a little over one, I want to address a fear that graduate students contemplating leaving academia likley have:  the end of your intellectual life.  To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of your brain's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

This was not an issue I particulalry struggled with: I was, afterall, in the process of writing a book before I applied to school.  Still, the big lie of the life of the mind has a powerful pull, and I realize that others may worry about what happens after Professors and the pressure to publish remove any required reading.

What You Won't Miss

First, I have not read a single article from my discipline since leaving.  Not one.  However, that does not mean I have not been reading other academic fields.  I still have remote access through my university, and there are a few projects that leaving has freed me up to pursue.  I'm finally free to pursue lines of research that interested me, but not my department, and for a more general audience where I think my arguments will be more impactful.

Also, leaving Academia has also freed me from conventions I hate:  Only capitalizing the first word of titles.  ARGH  #$^%! I never got used to that, can't stand it, and have now flaunt my Capitalized Titles with Reckless Abandon!

Voracious and Changed Reading Habits

Now that I get to read what I want, when I want, and without the obligation to read hanging over me, I have actually been reading more.  My initial reading list can best be characterized as escapist rebellion:  as a recovering social scientist I set aside non-fiction for historical novels, which I previously claimed to hate.  Most reading focused on political intrigue of 15th and 16th century English court.  Why?  Perhaps the politics of my department, or the anticiapted political and policy angle of my now current job. Regardless, this constituted a complete 180.  Who knows the source of my motivations, but after years of supressing my desires and interests the deal I made with my soul once I quit was that I was going to let myself do pretty much whatever I wanted.  As you can see, I also threw some Papal history into the mix:


Mary Queen of Scotts and the Isles
The Other Bolyn Girl
The Borgias 


What You Read May Change
Primarily, I have also shifted from the purely academic books to smart, intellectually stimulating novels, short stories, and non-fiction.  In the two months since I have left, I have also finished:

Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood
Another City: Writing from Los Angeles
City Making: Building Communities without Building Walls

That's between 1000-2000 pages of reading, not including online articles and newspapers, let alone the reading, research, and policy analyis I do for my job.

Don't Put Pressure On Yourself
The biggest advice I have is to relax and let yourself recover. Initially, my lack of writing has been disapointing.  However, I also realize that quitting graduate school, finding a new job, and adjusting to life post Ph.D. track is an  intense and emotional process. I've just started to think about writing again, but I'm reducing my expectations of myself.   It could be six months or a year before I pick up the writing I want to do, and that is ok. Of course, I didn't come to this highly rational and circumspect conclusion alone, which is why I still recommend a good therapist!