Escape the Ivory Tower

On Being Escape Artists

I was thinking about this metaphor I have going, this metaphor of escape. We aren’t all escaping academia, but I think we can all benefit from escaping the ivory tower, that collection of myths about academia that does so much damage to so many of us. Entering higher education with clear eyes is one thing. Entering it and staying in it because of a story that never holds up is quite another.

But how would I describe the lot of us, this motley collection of people who are escaping different parts, creating different lives, all with academia as one touchstone among others. And then it came to me: We’re escape artists.

Figuring out how to craft a life that is meaningful and sustainable and enjoyable is, in fact, a creative act. We often approach it as something to figure out, something we need to think our way through. But while we all bring our prodigious brains to the project, we’re also bringing our boundless creativity, those parts of us that show up at unexpected times saying, “what if?”

And when we’re in the depths of anger and despair and pain and confusion of the process, “what if?” is a liberating and optimistic place to be.

So I just want to take a minute to honor all of the creativity and passion and curiosity and brilliance you all bring to the question of how to craft your own individual lives. Getting to be in conversation with you is inspiring, indeed.

Summer check-in

It’s the middle of June. Do you know where your energy is?

Seriously, though, if you’re still in academia, it’s probably been about a month since you finished teaching, turned in your grades, walked out of your last committee meeting, and hung up your robes from working commencement. Even if you’re teaching this summer, it’s been about a month since the packed schedules, the endless students needing your attention, the rushing around, the inbox full of items that need to be attended to now now now.

How do you feel?

This is a good time to check in with yourself, because being outside of the time pressures of the typical semester can give you a much better sense of how you feel about things.

Take your research, for instance. Are you excited by it? Bored by it? Avoiding it? Are you getting things done, noodling around without making much progress, or putting it off because hey, the World Cup only happens once every four years?

When you think about academia right now, how do you feel? Affection? Anger? Indifference? Excitement? Energy?

If you take the time to check in with yourself now, when you’ve had some time to decompress, you’ll get some really important clues — clues about what actually motivates and energizes you, clues about what drains you, clues about what you enjoy and what you merely tolerate. Figuring those things out will get you one step closer to figuring out how to adjust your life to maximize your own happiness.

So tell me: How are you feeling about it all right now? Is it different than it was during the semester? How?

Experiment!

Some of us are the kind of people who can think our way into change — we can imagine alternative lives, we can believe that we’re qualified for this other career, we can create step-by-step plans to get us from here to our dreamed-of future.

But some of us need things to happen in the real world for us to be able to figure anything out.

What about this?

If you’re the type of person that needs to interact with the great wide world to figure things out, relying on brainstorming and research isn’t going to cut it.

In that case, try experimenting.

In other words, if you’re interested in doing something other than academia and you aren’t sure if it would work, apply and see what happens. At the very least you’ll get experience applying and you’ll be able to observe your own reactions to the possibility. At most you might get real feedback on your skills or even, gasp, get a job offer. Right there you’ll learn things about yourself and what you want to do next.

Nothing is all or nothing

The thing that usually holds us back from experimenting is the fear that if we apply, we have to take it. Or if we take a short course in something to find out more, we’re obligated to take the next one. Or if we contemplate doing something else, we’re turning our back on academia entirely, forever and ever.

But it’s not true. You may wade into the waters of the post-academic world and decide you like things the way they are. You might learn something that you can bring back to where you are and change it for the better. You might simply answer the “what if” question that was at the heart of your restlessness. Who knows?

The cool thing about experimentation is that its goal is simply to learn. At every stage, at every different fork, you can ask yourself what you want, what feels better, and what you want to know next. And that means that it’s always successful — because you can’t experiment and not learn things, even if the thing you learn is that project X is not for you.

So, what kind of an experiment would answer some of the nagging questions you’re facing? What would you need in order to try those experiments? Inquiring minds want to know.

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