Aochen Li ASA002 A04 Week 7

Aochen Li ASA002 A04 Week 7

In the reading, "How to Leave Academia", the author Rani Neutill mainly talks about her experience of quitting occupation from academia and the changes in her psychological conditions. At first, she experienced happiness when she received the doctorate of her academic career and she felt she was the lucky one. However, after she knew the elitism and snobbery in academia, she felt disappointed and planned to leave. This point can be revealed by the sentence, "I would rather be a waitress than a academic". Moreover, her freedom of dress was regarded as improper for a person in academia, which is unreasonable. Under the pressure of unable access to permanent occupations, she decided to leave and started to find the job. Finally, she became a waitress. Her psychological transition started at this point. At first, she felt she was a failure when she was going to be a waitress. The experience of being a waitress finally made her feel proud of being a waitress. She thought the working environment is totally different. She started to feel she was in a family when she worked as a waitress. "Even though I was clumsy, everyone was supportive.", written by Rani. The waitress experience made a positive influence on her mental health which was destroyed by the job in academia. 

From my perspective, for the point of the attire. Except for some important situation, people should not be judged by their attires. It is unreasonable to reject a person's research output only due to the attire she dressed. A lot of people, including me, think people with doctorates must have better lives than people who work as a waiter or waitress. However, after viewing Rani's experience, I change my opinion. Since now I feel the most significant factor decides whether a job is good or not is whether this job will give you a better life instead of ruining your life.

Question: How do we deal with the pressure when we pursue our academic achievement?

Reference:
Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the tower: Asian American women scholars resistance and renewal in the academy. Rutgers University Press.

. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/collections/ijfdfjhjef