Interjection

My grad school is having an alumni reception in SF, and I've signed up for it, mostly because I want to network just in case the perfect job just wants to fall into my lap. Andy offered to come with, but I decided that I socialize better alone (we've gone to some embassy receptions in DC where he mostly wanted to talk to me and I mostly wanted to meet new people). So, I wonder if most of the people there will be graduates of the decade I was born, or newly-unleashed 21 year olds... I'm sure part of it will be them asking for money, but as Andy rightly noted, they will not see any from me until I've dispensed with my sizable loans. And how entertaining will it be for me to come and say that I've gotten this degree and job experience, and now I'm happily doing nothing? I guess I'm a bit of a masochist in that I have not exactly forced but enabled myself to get off my butt, get away from the wall and interject myself into a group of strangers. I look at it as a kind of a sport, I suppose, even meeting people I end up not liking is an experience where I can derive some benefit to myself, for example, learning how to get the best out of interacting with people I don't particularly like.

I was fairly active in all kinds of groups in DC, both because that's what a lot of people did at my school and for networking, but I also liked going to talks and meetings that were personally interesting to me. I did that too when I moved back to SF, but of course on a smaller scale since there are only so many things here related to international relations. I stopped when I got busy, and even though I'm busy now, I'm going to try to carve out some time to go to interesting events... after I carve out some time to work, natch. Not that I don't have enough friends I don't see often enough, nor am I exactly trying to climb the career ladder at this point, but I figure it can't hurt, and if it does, I can always stop again. I think I'm in a really good position in life where I have that much control over what I do and how much time I spend at it.

Interjection

My grad school is having an alumni reception in SF, and I've signed up for it, mostly because I want to network just in case the perfect job just wants to fall into my lap. Andy offered to come with, but I decided that I socialize better alone (we've gone to some embassy receptions in DC where he mostly wanted to talk to me and I mostly wanted to meet new people). So, I wonder if most of the people there will be graduates of the decade I was born, or newly-unleashed 21 year olds... I'm sure part of it will be them asking for money, but as Andy rightly noted, they will not see any from me until I've dispensed with my sizable loans. And how entertaining will it be for me to come and say that I've gotten this degree and job experience, and now I'm happily doing nothing? I guess I'm a bit of a masochist in that I have not exactly forced but enabled myself to get off my butt, get away from the wall and interject myself into a group of strangers. I look at it as a kind of a sport, I suppose, even meeting people I end up not liking is an experience where I can derive some benefit to myself, for example, learning how to get the best out of interacting with people I don't particularly like.

I was fairly active in all kinds of groups in DC, both because that's what a lot of people did at my school and for networking, but I also liked going to talks and meetings that were personally interesting to me. I did that too when I moved back to SF, but of course on a smaller scale since there are only so many things here related to international relations. I stopped when I got busy, and even though I'm busy now, I'm going to try to carve out some time to go to interesting events... after I carve out some time to work, natch. Not that I don't have enough friends I don't see often enough, nor am I exactly trying to climb the career ladder at this point, but I figure it can't hurt, and if it does, I can always stop again. I think I'm in a really good position in life where I have that much control over what I do and how much time I spend at it.