>> That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. You didn't have time to think about what you were doing, was it the rig

>> That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. You didn't have time to think about what you were doing, was it the right thing, was it what you wanted, etc... This is a great point and one I think clearly happened to the author and to a lesser degree myself. I was all about going into academia, being a professor, travelling the world on other people's money and studying romantic cultures in far away places. I was warned about the environment then (early and mid 00's) and the lack of pay, but I wanted to experience it so bad. I had blinders on and all I wanted was my doctoral degree and then kickstart myself into a PhD program. I burned out in epic fashion and took a few years off and regrouped. In the meantime, a half dozen of my friends graduated and landed teaching jobs, and others started in their doctoral programs. Within a year, they were all out. Either pivoting and going back to school for a completely different major, or pivoting into some other field and out of academia completely. I was lucky and avoided most of it - but without my burn out, I'm afraid I probably would have been in the same place as the author. Without a real examination of where I was going and what I really wanted to do with my life, I almost lost several years finding out academia really wasn't the place I wanted to be. I look back and see I really dodged a bullet.