KM, an instructor I took a class from way back, said something along these lines: “We are who we hang with…I grew up with Bethoven and Bach, and I can’t imagine what my life would have been like if not for listening to and playing their music.”

Yesterday, Collin linked to the First Monthly Carnival of GRADual Progress. I took a look. Some of it’s depressing and some less so.

One of the toughest things for me to adjust to in grad school has been the heirarchies and divisions among the different academic specialists, which affects the grad student population as well. I don’t really want to waste more time detailing all of the ways that people have looked down at or not really understood the work that I want to do. What I’d really like to emphasize, and it took me a while to get this working, is that it is really important to find people who are supportive, willing to mentor, and just plain fun to hang out with. I’ve found a few now, but it took a while.

Whatever we do in life, I think it is important to ask, are your friends an elevator or a cage? If any of you know motorcycle slang, then you know that people who drive cars, trucks, etc. are “cagers,” so when I saw the above post, it really spoke to me. It’s really advice our parents may have told us long ago…”don’t hang out with the wrong crowd.” Are the people you spend time with going to lift you up, tear you down, or be jealous of your accomplishments? Some of each type will be found in academia and elsewhere. The right answer for an academic career will be different for everyone. If you can find good people to surround yourself with, then I think that is a large part of making any situation more doable….even just for the short term.

I’ve found some good people to hang out with in the blogosphere and I’ve even met some of them in person. I have some great friends in Texas, motorcycle and otherwise, that I get to ride with and hang out with occasionally. I still keep in touch with a friend in Florida that I worked with a long time ago. Now I have a few friends in Missouri. Hey…if I accumulate enough friends in different states, it might make a cross country motorcycle trip more feasible… ;)

Seriously, tho…I hope y’all have people in your life who do more lifting than caging.