Graduate School

Graduate School is a memoir about an older person returning to school. It is about newbeginnings, changing a way of living and adventurously pursuing a life passion bystudying philosophy. It is about the struggle to get into graduate school, the challenges oflearning again, the excitement of a fresh start in life and the happiness derived fromstudying the ancient philosophy of Stoicism.This is also a book about higher education in America today written through the lens ofone who had...
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Graduate School is a memoir about an older person returning to school. It is about newbeginnings, changing a way of living and adventurously pursuing a life passion bystudying philosophy. It is about the struggle to get into graduate school, the challenges oflearning again, the excitement of a fresh start in life and the happiness derived fromstudying the ancient philosophy of Stoicism.This is also a book about higher education in America today written through the lens ofone who had experienced much of life--who has navigated the rough and tumble realworld and entered an academic surreal world. This memoir evaluates controversial topicslike feminism, socialism and liberal academic biases based on experience.In many ways, academia is an idealistic, make-believe cocoon. This book is also aboutthose that inhabitant this world. It describes professors with liberal agendas, professorsstruggling to inculcate learning and idealistic professors endeavoring to impartknowledge. It is also about the college students and those who live at the periphery ofacademia.Foremost, this book is about ideas. It describes a student's descent into the philosophiesof free will, determinism, art and morality, theories of the mind, Stoicism and ancienthistory. A few redacted papers are included to illustrate the author's ignorance, issues ingraduate school and difficult ideas and concepts to master. One paper, for example,compares the decline of Ancient Rome with the decline of America today.While this book offers insights into many facets of graduate school, the central topic ishow to achieve happiness in life. Some of its most important messages are that it is nevertoo late to learn, that we compete against ourselves and not others and to always live lifeto its fullest, aim further than your reach and live life now because it is all we have.