The Energon Pub

[Dagon]

Hey everyone,

I know from previous conversations that hellkitty instructs at a college, and it’s possible others of us here on Seibertron do as well.
I’ve just finished (well, I will finish, at the end of next week) a Master’s degree in Literature. I’m a high school English teacher, and while everyone and their mothers have told me to stay with high school because at least there I’m shaping the future and all that other stuff, ever since I was a child I’ve wanted a PhD in literature. I wanted, and still want, to be a professor. So, here I am, two thirds of the degrees into being able to seriously pursue that goal, and I guess I sort of just wanted to talk about it, and maybe share experiences, and maybe even get some pointers, as I’m sort of lost as to what I should be doing now.
My brother, who is only 21 and still working on a bachelor’s degree, never hesitates to tell me all about how I’m already getting too old to work seriously on a PhD. I’m turning 32 in July (happy early birthday to me!) My girlfriend, who is also 21 (lucky, lucky me!) is nothing but supportive of me and any and all of my dreams, even the dopey ones that concern cartoon robots and message boards dedicated to them. She’s really, really terrific, and she listens when I get poetic about higher higher education and when I babble about literature (even though she is also working on a BA in Literature, she makes it seem like I just ramble, like she’s gaining nothing from it).
I’ve gotten an article published on William Blake, and am currently shopping an article on Blake and Fyodor Dostoevsky for possible (hopeful) publication. I’m suddenly smitten with Russian literature, and there’s some odd nagging in my head that says that that’s the avenue I should go down for another degree. I don’t speak or read or nothing Russian, and I know that that presents a problem already.
Despite my not fawning over Revenge of the Fallen 29 hours a day, I’m actually an intelligent, articulate guy. Certainly, all who are reading this know by know that I’m just one of the myriad Internet badass whooping machines who just posts to flex his imaginary destructive powers, but in real life, I actually am a pretty bright guy. Again, given my evil status of not blindly loving everything, I actually do a good job of listening to, understanding and respecting other people’s opinions, as if you are still reading this at this point, you know that’s a vital academic skill. I might not agree with everything, but nobody does, and I’m fairly skilled at trying to see the other point of view before jumping to the conclusion of cussing how stupid it is.
I guess my thoughts are, if anyone has advice, that they could or would give a 31 and a half-ish guy who’s looking to try making a dream of his come true, I’d love to hear it. I’m currently looking into universities that would offer something of interest to me, which if it doesn’t turn out to be Russian literature would be the world’s oldest stand-by, the English Romantics, or maybe Milton. I’m not really 100% certain right now, but if this whole post sounds like trolling or whatnot, it’s not, I really am serious about this.
So I don’t know, how does a guy get started? If this is such a stupid post and the mods lock it, that’s cool. PM me if you prefer I guess.