I have an unusual circle of friends – they’re mostly brilliantly smart in an academic and social sense. Amongst my friends, “geek” and “nerd” are compliments. Heck, I aspire to be a nerd but my rudimentary HTML skills and my dependence on Windows just don’t cut it 🙂

Many of my friends have embarked or will embark on PhD programs next year (“Nerds!”). Some are going through the hoopla of applying for scholarships at the world famous Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Others I know are Australian ex-pats in Stanford, UC Berkley and Caltech. It makes me feel a little inferior to be stuck in Australia, moving on to my highly-paid, high-stress engineering consulting job after I graduate at the end of this year. How conventional!

I wonder if I should try it myself? Apply for the Australian Rhodes Scholarship or check out any of the above unis, plus Harvard, Yale and Princeton. I’ve checked out their websites and there are definitely courses I would find interesting. But the hunt for prestige and “keeping up with the brilliants” seem like very silly reasons to spend four years of your life in another country. Far more noble reasons would be to extend yourself and your experiences; transfer knowledge from more advanced countries; for the love of research and academia.

I am ready to work now. I am itching to put my skills into practice now. But I also don’t want to be ordinary. I don’t want to have been capable and unusual all through my academic life, only to sink into ordinariness when I become a worker. I want to fulfil my potential beyond being a productive bee in society’s hive. Sometimes I think I will need a PhD from Yale to fulfil my potential. Most of the time, I realise I’d being shallow and short-sighted to follow such an ego-driven agenda. No doubt other people around the world have done exactly that… and achieved and learned beyond their expectations.

Hurrumph. Nothing has been resolved.

This will be my last entry until I come back from skiing. My dance principal has forbidden from breaking any limbs while I’m away. AW! Spoilsport! :p