Mission Accomplished?

The funny thing about getting a PhD, much like most monumental life events, is that it can be a real let down in the moment. So, I toil and stress for 5 1/2 years and then... I am left asking myself, what the hell was I thinking getting a PhD in Philosophy? When I would tell most people that I studied Philosophy one common response was: "So you talk to crazy people"? Well, yes...well, no...well, technically I think you are referring to Psy-cho-lo-gy and not Phil-o-so-phy. "Oh, so you must be deep, tell me your philosophy on life..." Most people have no idea what Philosophy is or what Philosophers do. So how does one translate this degree in a resume? Good question, especially since I had decided, much to the chagrin of my professors and mentors, not to go on the market and pursue a teaching career. Much like them, I too was left wondering what I was going to do with myself. I had a PhD, that wondrous and most auspicious of titles, and no clue what to do with it. After the dissertation was completed, the graduation ceremony concluded, and the giddiness that accompanied seeing my bound dissertation subsided, I fell into a deep depression. I could not shake the feeling that I had just made some awful, unforgivable mistake. I had been a student for 99% of my life on this earth and now I had to go out into the big, cruel world (of Philadelphia no less) and find a job--Yes, Philadelphia. I decided that it was not enough to get married while working on the PhD, I also had to move to Philadelphia and adjust to a whole new city while finishing up my dissertation, in January. Here I am in big, cold Philadelphia trying to finish the dissertation and begin my job search. Scratch that, I was not just looking for a job, I was bucking the system. I had gone against the advise of professors and advisers and decided to forsake the traditional profession of Philosophers--teaching. Hey, I figured that a PhD should be anything but limiting. I remember having a very sad and disturbing conversation with one of my colleagues while I was in graduate school. We were talking about our plans and I was telling him that I did not plan to go on the market. He looked at me and said, "I wish I could do something else, but what else could I do? The really sad thing is that they don't even really teach us how to teach." This sentiment is not unusual. None of my colleagues or professors had ever seen anyone with a PhD in Philosophy do anything but teach Philosophy. I am not knocking the professoriate, but my heart just wasn't in it. I was privileged to have several truly exceptional professors as an undergraduate. These folks loved their jobs and were passionate teachers. I did not want to teach because I simply could not think of something else that I could be doing instead. I wanted to do something that I could be passionate about. I wanted to translate my PhD into a career that I would find meaningful and fulfilling. Even with all of my misgivings, fear, and trepidation I was hired as the Director of College Retention for a non-profit organization in Philadelphia four months after graduation. This is not the work that I plan to do for the rest of my life, but I am passionate about it and, some would say, exceptional. In the interim I have even discovered that I actually like teaching...sometimes.