It's time for me to start thinking about grad school. I'll need to apply by this time next year or so, so figuring out what I want to do - and how I'm going to fund it - is something I need to do now.
What am I going to grad school for?
Fuck if I know.
Maybe I'll let my community decided...
I say that as half a joke... but also a bit serious...
My main requirement is a degree I can do remotely OR within driving distance of me. Prefer remotely, I am a hermit after all, but if it's a program I'm really interested in, I'd be willing to deal with people in person for a few years to do that.
In what?
Fuck if I know...
A Masters in Teaching Foreign Languages from Michigan State University is one I'm considering. Not because I actually want to teach in a formal setting, but because learning foreign languages is a special interest, I've got plans to make a branching platform all about learning languages for introverts and readers since most material is focused on people who want to travel or need to learn a language for a career, and I'm in it to read books in other languages because stuff gets lost in translation.
But Meme studies is another serious interest... And anthropology of internet communities...
But I'm not going to school to change a career.
I have a career that I love, that will benefit from a few years spent gaining more traditional education.
Content creation.
I use that very generic label because my "career" is doing whatever I want to do and sharing it with my audience, who continues to follow me because "doing whatever I want to do" is inspiring to people.
I went back to college to finish my philosophy degree in part to become a better thinker and writer for my content creation. I was already halfway to finishing that degree, so it doesn't make sense to change majors to something else, and also, philosophy is a solid foundational degree to have for future studies.
Now, I could grab another bachelor's degree or two before I jump to grad school.
But I'm still gonna need to figure out how to fund it because I'm almost at the lifetime cap for Federal financial aid.
So what if I crowdfunded my future degrees?
I crowdfunded a house.
Why not a degree?
But dipping my toes into the world onchain has shifted things around that idea a bit.
It's not going to be like a traditional sort of crowdfunding thing where you hope enough people donate to make the goal.
Nope.
I'm thinking about a CuriousDAO that will go beyond just funding my future education - after I've finished the degrees, it'll fund my independent research.
DAO members will be able to vote to help determine the direction of my research - within my areas of interest and the expertise that I develop, of course.
And in turn, they get first access to results. They get first access to the content I create around what I'm learning, and a portion of my own profits from creating will be returned to the DAO, growing it for all of us.
And if it turns out to work?
Perhaps I could expand it and together we could fund other Curious Scholars who want to carve their own path, but need to gather some expertise to do that, first.
Who knows.
Time will tell ;)
