Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, has the mantra “Be Gretchen” as one of her Twelve Commandments.
I’m not finished reading her book yet (on my Kindle) but I absolutely love it. And while starting my own personal Happiness Project sounds like an amazingly wonderful idea – it also sounds a little overwhelming to me right now.
I have decided, however, to adopt one of her commandments for myself – thus my new mantra:
Be Monica.
To me this means I will worry less about what others think and do more of what I know is good for me.
It started today when I finally began studying for the GRE.
I’m studying for the GRE so I can go back to school to get my Ph.D. Many people feel that this would be a crazy thing for me to do.
Why?
Because I already have an Ed.D.
Some people wonder if I simply want another set of initials after my name – in fact I don’t care much about initials (I’ve had an MBA since I was 22 and I’ve never used those initials).
Others wonder if I don’t feel that my degree is “real” because it’s an Ed.D. and not a Ph.D. I don’t feel that way. I firmly believe that I have a “real” doctorate.
I want to go back to school because I love to learn and I want to become a better researcher.
There are so many topics and theories that I want to explore including: instructional technology, curriculum development, pre-service teacher education and professional development for current teachers.
I have a lot of experience with applied research but I want to learn more about theoretical research. You can learn about the difference between those types of research here if you are interested.
So today I started studying. My goal is to take the test by the end of May so I don’t have to spend the summer studying.
This is my first step in my quest to “Be Monica”.
