"What are you doing next?"
As I finish up grad school, I get this a lot. I find it a hard question to answer. It requires knowing myself and my own priorities, and knowing what the questioner actually wants to hear. As I don't have a good standard answer at this point, I must either find the courage to say that I don't know, or give a partial answer to avoid the underlying question.
Given how much anxiety this question has caused me, I decided to spend some serious time thinking about it more formally. This blog is part of my independent study (yes, I get credit for this) as my final units at Stanford GSB. Prof. Rod Kramer is my advisor, and is helping me shape my reading list and adding his vast academic experience in this field.
My emotional platform will be a collection of thoughts, experiences, readings, conversations, and journeys I piece together over (at least) the next 10 weeks. My goal isn't necessarily to answer the question of "What next?". Instead, I want to be able to put myself in an emotional state where I can deal with this question with less anxiety, and decide best how to answer it.
My guess is that some of you are struggling or have struggled with similar issues. My intention of sharing this experience with you is that I want to hear your thoughts and help others through this process too.
What should I be reading? What's been helpful for you during this type of transition? How should I be spending my time?
I'll be posting my thoughts, reading lists, and other adventures soon. Any and all (constructive) feedback is most welcome. This is also my first blog, so I'm playing around with the content and tech aspects too.
-Emma
