Identity Crisis
Emerging into sunlight!
After months spent as a virtual recluse battling against all manner of hurdles to complete my thesis it felt like a real treat to emerge out into the winter sunshine yesterday and wandered up to Warwick Medical School. This was just a flying visit, to put last minute touches to some future plans, and now I am back in my regular haunt on main campus. However, all being well I hope to be spending much more time “up there” in the future…
It was as I was wandering back down the hill that my thoughts turned back to a conversation I had a little while ago, on the topic of “identity”. The common question of “What do you do?” often being an early probe in conversations, currently provides my first dilemma. I am no longer a student, having ceased to be registered with the University at the end of 2013. However, my daily activities seem to have changed little, except that instead of writing my thesis I am now translating my work into journal papers, blog articles and future research proposals. But I am not a student. Yet neither am I a Post-Doc, for I have to wait to have my viva before such exciting developments can occur. So prompts the question: “What am I?”
Identity Crisis
The answer to this question is further complicated from my seeming inability (reluctance?) to define myself under a traditional “discipline”. In academia, as in life, one is often identified by a series of labels. People are “Historians”, “Mathematicians”, “Philosophers” and “Economists”. Recently I was asked “What are you?” to which I explained that I saw myself as a researcher within Infection Prevention.
Apparently this was not the accepted approach…
I needed to “be” something. I explained I had a Psychology degree, but I refute that I am a “Psychologist”, although according to some definitions perhaps I am… I have a business MA, but I do not see myself as exclusively in this field either. Having spent a number of years in manufacturing I could define myself as an “Analyst”, but that isn’t solely what I do. Finally, all being well, I will soon have a doctorate in “Engineering”. But, looking at what I do, and where I see myself going, I don’t feel that the identity “Engineer” quite covers it either….
So, what am I? And further, does it matter? Answers on a postcard* please… Be kind.
*Tweets, comments, owls and smoke signals also accepted.
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