finally, I seem to be growing up a little.

I think others who’ve been in grad school forever will understand this. There is something about getting a PhD that puts you (sometimes nearly a decade) behind other friends your age in terms of getting out into the “real world.” You know, the “real world” where you work full time, make more than $3/hour, drive a car newer than 20 years old, wear suits sometimes, start saving money, settle down with someone, maybe buy a house, start a family etc. Instead of “growing up” you’re stuck in “poor student” mode forever– living paycheck to paycheck, doing homework, renting, wearing jeans most of the time etc. etc. etc.

It isn’t that I’ve been totally out of the real world for a decade. I did hold down a full time job while finishing my undergrad degree– and when I had that job I made a decent full time salary (that now seems like a fortune to me after years of making grad student slave wages). And I have settled down in terms of having a partner, but we’ve held off family expansion until I have a real job. But in all other senses, I’ve been a student forever. Forever.

But, that is actually going to change in the next year. And that is kind of amazing (and a little scary) to think about– talk about a drastic life change! I’ll make more than $12,000!* But, if in case I don’t know what to do with all the new richness, I’ll have to pay off my insanely large grad school loans (did you know there is a limit? I am all too familiar with it.)

So to prepare, I went out and bought some nice clothes this past weekend for interviews and for the job market. I felt incredibly adult trying on suit jackets and such. I didn’t get a fully matching suit, as that seemed too “matchy matchy” but I did get jackets, pants and shirts that can all be mixed up nicely into different outfits. And they are all coordinated, so even the fashion challenged me can’t mess up the color combos. And I bought nice, dressy-ish black shoes. They’re not heals (ugh! never!) but they’re also not keens, or sneakers, or birkenstocks, so that’s a big step up for me.

And I’ve been doing other little things to prepare– consolidating and trying to pay off credit card debt, and figuring out what my credit score is (not as frightening as I thought!). I’m trying to imagine doing other “adult” things like buying a house, and buying a (newer) car…

Then there’s the job market prep. Reading job descriptions and trying to imagine myself there. Summing up my whole grad school experience in a CV, website, and cover letter. And figuring out how to summarize my dissertation in 30 seconds (the “elevator schpeel”), 60 seconds etc. That last part I still don’t have down yet. But at least I have the clothes and shoes.

So I’ve been busy with all this “growing up” folks. And until I leave for Boston on the 30th, I’ll continue this crazy busy-ness. I did manage to get some things accomplished though. I sent an article (they already accepted the abstract) out for review yesterday. And I’ll have another article draft done this coming weekend. And I planned out my dissertation chapters, so I feel like I have some focus amidst all the madness.

But do I really want to leave the safety and comfort of perpetual grad school? I’m sure I do, but sometimes being a student forever has advantages. And I won’t be able to afford it past this year (yeah, that limit thing again) so I guess I’m being pushed out of the nest…

* I’m being nothing but positive about the job market, by the way. I’m looking forward to it– the interviews, the job talks. I’m not going fear it. And I’m not going to even imagine not getting a job this year. Wayne Dyer would be so proud.