Back To School Reflection

1482 Words3 Pages

Reflection Paper
Deciding to go back to school for my master’s degree was not a particularly easy choice. Just starting a new job I found myself surrounded by smart, highly educated peers. It took me ten years to complete my undergraduate coursework, and while I was the first person in my family to obtain a bachelor’s degree, surrounded by coworkers that had advanced degrees caused me to feel very inadequate. Promoted to this position based on my merit and knowledge, I kept reminding myself that I did not need an advanced degree for validation. Yet, I was also faced with the fact that I would need to be competitive with my peers should further advancement become available. When considering my options the cost and time commitment needed to be taken into account. Knowing I was going to be working a graveyard made it difficult to see how I would fit in time to …show more content…

This was for two reasons, the first being I was not sure if I was still going to be living in the same city and needed an alternative that would not delay my enrollment in the course. The second reason was I no longer wanted to pursue research and policy work. I mulled over the conversations I had with different agencies as well as my experience with the field observation and after much thought and consideration I decided that this avenue was not for me. It involved a temperament and aggressiveness that I just did not have nor did I desire to have. This left me with trying to figure out a topic for my paper. Then one day I observed an interaction at work. One of my female coworkers demeaned and berated another female coworker and then proceeded to roll her eyes at her behind her back. This behavior disturbed me and then realized that I, too, was guilty of this type of conduct. I wondered how prevalent was this in our society and with that one consideration, the topic of my paper was

Open Document