Thursdays with Leila August 16, 2007
It’s just The Little Princess and me today. With her going to childcare on Tuesdays, Thursday is now the only day that I have her all to myself and vice versa. So we’re celebrating our mother-daughter time with me in the study typing this and her in the lounge room gazing out the window and yelling along with Mozart on her mobile (when the mobile stops so does Leila). We’ll get plenty of time for cuddles (in front of the telly) later.
It’s looking quite wintery outside today so there are no major plans for expeditions or outside time. I’m just thinking of going to the supermarket to restock the pantry and fridge and trying to restore a bit of order to the house which looks like a number of bombs have been let off in each room. I did tell Finn that I would buy some seedlings today for us to plant in the vegie garden tomorrow, but it looks like being cold and wet, so I’m hoping he’ll forget I said it.
At some stage I might curl up on the couch with the books for my uni subjects. I’m studying Psych and Introduction to Management this study period so I’m sure the opening chapters of each will be absolutely riveting. I’d like to start getting my head around it all, though, and doing a little reading seems like a good way to do it.
The qualification I’m sort of aiming for is a Bachelor of Business Studies. It’s not my ‘pie in the sky’ ideal, but it’s what I can get into to study, what I can study by distance, what I can begin studying right now and - being at least a bit pragmatic - it’s probably going to be of more tangible value than what I’d ideally like to study. If I was 18 again (and no I don’t want to be 18 again) I’d be doing cultural studies, philosophy and so on - all the fuzzy ‘useless’ stuff - because I think that’s the stuff that people need to know about before they tie themselves to the career treadmill, but at my time of life (she says, inspecting her grey hairs and crows feet) I need to be realistic about what’s going to give me the most useful result for the time I’m going to put into it. And Business Studies is probably it. Pragmatism, thy name is Nicky.
Now I think The Little Princess is in need of a sleep. The yells are getting a bit of an edge to them that’s not good. Off to the land of nod she goes.
I have a BSBA in marketing from a good US university. I minored in religion and only took one (!) English lit class because I liked marketing, and thought studying the other wouldn’t be practical. A few years later I ended up ditching my day job in marketing and going to grad school to get an MA in religious studies from a less prestigious US uni, and it was one of the best things I ever did. Since then, I’ve also taken lots of lit and writing classes.
Life is short. I say study what you love–finding a job usually depends less on what you studied than on how well you did, and what your professional history and habits are.