Accountants do it with Balance

1. Graduate school isn’t for the faint-hearted.

Hindi siya status symbol, hindi siya luxury. Trust me, it really feels cocky when the idea of “Mag ma-Master’s ako.” sinks in. Nauuna talaga ang yabang before anything else. Totoo ‘yan. But I’m sorry to burst your bubble: graduate school is more of ugly than fab. Just imagine coming home from work, nabugbog ka sa dami ng trabaho at bigat ng traffic, at haharap ka pa sa mga assigned readings at papers mo. And no, you can’t just say, “Sorry, hindi ko po nabasa.” or “Sorry, pwede po bang next week ko na lang i-submit?” to your professors. While they know everyone’s engaged into something other than school, they also assume you do your part and you’re pretty serious on what you got yourself into. And of course, at some point, you will get hurt – sa pagod, sa puyat, sa dami ng trabaho. Matuto kang salagin lahat.

2. Graduate school isn’t about finding yourself.

Before your enter grad school, dapat nahanap mo na ang sarili mo kasi kung papasok ka sa ganitong situation para maghanap ng nawawala, you’d lose yourself. Kung naghahanap ka ng pag-ibig, huwag dito. Kung naghahanap ka ng direksyon sa buhay, huwag dito. Hindi ito pampalipas-oras o instrumento para maka-move on. Make sure you already got your life together. Make sure you already know what you want. That’s your fuel. That’s gonna be your fuel for the next 4-5 years when it starts to suck the life out of you. Gawin mo muna ang lahat ng gusto mong gawin before you decide to tie yourself up with all the drama and stress in grad school. Magsawa ka muna sa buhay mo sa labas because…

3. Graduate school will eat you up alive.

It will consume you. Normally, you should be the one controlling it. But in reality, it’s the other way around. Out of a number of night-outs and travels in a year, be ready to sacrifice 90% of them. Kahit anong pilit mo, I swear, it’s not possible to give an equal amount of attention to the rest of your priorities. It’s just not gonna work. Grad school pauses and slows your life a bit. Learn to deal with temporary inconveniences which will resort to permanent takeaways in the long run.

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Isa kang sacrificial lamb kung papasok ka sa grad school. Minsan maiiyak ka na lang dahil kailangan mong mag-set ng alarm on a weekend. Seat sales do not sound exciting to you anymore. And instead of sustaining the social butterfly in you, mas pipiliin mong tumita o tumito sa bahay at matulog.

But little did you know, ma-va-validate ang existence mo sa grad school. You’ll eventually realize there’s more to life than what you’ve been enjoying, na there’s always room for crackpots, and you’re always better than yesterday.

Life is a never-ending learning process. It’s vital to keep up with the pace.