Moving on is not failure

Well, I did it. It took me 6 years, but I finally got rid of my college notebooks and will get rid of (most) of
my textbooks this weekend.

Why is this a big deal? Well, I have a huge emotional attachment to clutter, as well as a tendency to
say “Oh, I’ll use this one day.”

But this is much more. Getting rid of these items was me finally saying, “I will let go of who I was, and
embrace who I am now.”

Except in my head that comes out as, “I wasted four years of my life getting an anthropology degree and
am now admitting that it was worthless and will never pursue that lifestyle again” followed by “Wait,
but what if I do pursue a Master’s in Anthropology? Think of all the money I will save!”

The fallacy of thought 1

Those were four of the hardest, most wonderful years of my life. I learned what it was like to live on
my own, and be placed in a lot of uncomfortable situations. I shared a room for the first time in my life,
and had to live with total strangers. I met a wide variety of people, and was put in situations I never
dreamed possible. I had to eat in a public place by myself! (Seriously, that was terrifying the first year)

I learned how to present an argument, how to speak in public without fainting, and that listening to
German Opera while hung-over was a bad idea. I pushed myself to the limit and then beyond, and
learned when to pull myself back. I learned a wealth of information that I will probably never use, but
loved learning it.

I was given the opportunity to have experiences that few people have, like excavating prehistoric
hunting ground, camps, and making obsidian blades. I was able to excavate sites at two Presidential homes
(Monticello and Mount Vernon), and co-authored and presented an archaeological report to the people
whose books I had studied in class.

I was given a safe environment where I could learn to make good decisions (like having a friend walk me
home when I worked late at night) and bad decisions (like riding a bus home alone after having a few
too many drinks).

I was able to more clearly define who I was, and who I did not want to be.

I was able to strengthen my relationship with my parents, because they were no longer there. At 18 I
thought I was “way smarter” than my parents. At 20…I only hoped I could be half as smart as them.

I also firmly believe that my education in anthropology helped shape me into the parent that I am today.
Sleep patterns, reactions to crying, breastfeeding/weaning ages and allergies were among the many
things that I studied both in local context and on a global scale. This helped to form my parenting style
and reinforce that even though that style is not mainstream America, it is normal in a global setting and
(through my studies and my 16 month experience as a parent) in an evolutionary sense.

The fallacy of thought 2

It has been 6 years since I graduated college, and don’t remember most of the basic information
relating to my field. I would definitely need to take the basic courses over again, and chances are the
information has changed greatly over that time (more if you consider I took the first course in 2002).
These books are probably 8 editions too old and I would have to re-buy everything anyway.

But you know…there may be someone out there who would want them for their library, and is just
thinking “If only someone out there had an Archaeological Theories book from 2005 they didn’t need.”