Abstract
Pursuing a graduate degree is often accompanied by overwhelming demands and expectations. When success is measured by one’s ability to develop a narrowed and exhaustive expertise, underdeveloped skills and deficiencies are often devalued and eschewed. T hough academia espouses lifelong learning, discordantly, it is not easily accepting of ignorance or inadequacy. This dismissal and rejection of inability furthers the unrealistic expectation of consummate mastery, exacerbating an already stressful situation and leading a person to isolate themselves from his or her ultimately inescapable ineptitudes. T hrough acceptance and engagement, inadequacies can be transformed from oppressive aggravations into pleasurable relaxations. Embracing one’s own mediocrity helps to disarm unrealistic expectations and ease the incendiary fracturing of one’s successful and insufficient selves.
Recommended Citation
Pabst, Emily
(2011)
"Blissful Blundering: Embracing Deficiency and Surviving Graduate School,"
The Geographical Bulletin: Vol. 52:
Iss.
2, Article 8.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/thegeographicalbulletin/vol52/iss2/8