Therapy is Awesome, All Sane People Should Do It. Or: How I Decided to Go to Grad School

I’m not the kind of person who makes a snap decision.

I’m the kind of person who makes multiple snap decisions over a long period of time and calls it “thoughtful decision making” to concerned family members and condescending frenemies.

So, deciding to go to grad school was a long process for me.

But ultimately, the journey to that decision brought me three nuggets of wisdom:

1) Therapy is Awesome, All Sane People Should Do It

In the summer of 2013, I went to therapy.

Despite a high-strung personality and serious crazy-genes, I actually did not go to therapy because of a mental breakdown.

I went to therapy because I loved incessantly talking about myself (duh, who doesn’t?!) and the thought of being able to do that for an hour straight was enticing.

And my therapist was forced to listen to me. Muuuahaha.

My therapist changed my life in a beautiful way. She gave me concrete strategies for achieving the life I envisioned.

I learned that I live in my Head and think through every scenario.

This is not a necessarily a good thing – your Heart and your Gut can be awesome decision makers, too, if you let them.

And I had to learn to let them.

When it came to the grad school decision, my Head had a thousand different opinions and pulled me in a thousand different directions.

Not helpful.

Luckily, my Heart and Gut were on the same page and giving me the green light. I listened to them and, eventually, they helped my Head come around so that I could be at peace with this decision.

And since then, I have worked hard to try to listen to my Head, Heart and Gut equally.

I’ve tried to listen to my Back Dimples, too, but with less success.

2) The Internet is 100% Reliable, Believe Everything You Read…Or Watch

On the road to deciding to go to grad school, I also watched this Ted Talk called Why 30 Is Not the New 20.

And then I re-watched it…twenty million more times.

“Get some ‘identity capital,'” she says. “Make an investment in the person you want to become.”

Oooooh, gurl. Preach.

3) Let a Random Stranger be your Guide

In 2013, I joined a mentoring program for career advice. They paired me with another woman in my profession.

Aka: A random stranger.

My mentor turned out to be one of the most beautiful women I have ever met.

Then, I discovered that she had that also-beautiful-on-the-inside thing, which was really just annoying. You’re not supposed to have both. It makes it unfair for the rest of us.

Despite my initial annoyance, we ended up getting along quite well.

She encouraged me to consider the bigger picture: my long-term career and how an MBA might enhance my personal and professional life.

So, I guess she also had that I-have-wisdom-and-I’m-kind-enough-to-share-it thing going for her, too.

Damn it.

Basically, after a year of snap decisions, I applied to my top grad school and – by some flaw in ESADE’s admissions process – was admitted.

Which means I’ll be leaving the U.S. on August 18, 2015. And I will graduate in the spring of 2017.

So…a year and a half.

Plenty of time to make more snap decisions.