There's Nothing You Can Know That Isn't Known

I did drop out in the end.  I haven't been in full time 'corporate' employment for well over a year.  And I realised pretty quickly that I love being in university.  I love the sense of boundless possibility.  More books and journal articles than I could ever read. More great academics and students than I could ever interact with, societies I could ever join, courses I could ever take.  There is no upper bound to what your mind can accomplish.  That's true everywhere of course, but in university, at graduate level, it's pummelled into you constantly by the ever-growing gap between what you're supposed to have done and what you have done.  That can be incredibly stressful and sometimes manifest itself more in crippling inadequacy than in inspiration, but it's also kind of wonderful for really pushing me towards my potential in a way that work never has.  It makes me try.  I love university for that, even when it's sucking the life out of me, when its processes are unfair or inflexible and when my relationship with the educational system is tinged with disillusionment. Even in my hardest times (and even if The Beatles were right), there's always a personal reason to learn the next thing that needs to be learnt; it could take you anywhere.