Tuesday 6 May 2014

Geek.

Deciding the name of a blog is far trickier than I had imagined. As I sat at my computer, I thought of the future of my blog; would it be read by thousands, could it define my career, will I be judged on the title?!

That's a lot of pressure to put on a tiny little blog, which I am starting purely for my own pleasure. I want to document my journey through the world of psychology and academia, as I finish my research masters and progress onto my PhD, hopefully coming out the other end as individual who is an expert in my chosen field. That's when it clicked. I am a psychology geek. There's often a lot of negativity surrounding the word 'geek'. Typically ones first thoughts are those relating to gaming and computing, or somebody who is socially inept or 'unfashionable'.

However I much prefer this definition which I found...

"Be or become extremely excited or enthusiastic about a subject, typically one of specialist or minority interest:"

And that, in part, is why I am going to pursue a PhD.  I love psychology and I love research. I realise this excitement and love will be tested throughout my PhD and (hopefully) my future career as an academic. But I know at heart that I am psychology geek! Of course there are other reasons why I wish to pursue a PhD (will I may discuss at a later date), however I think it is important that the initial desire to pursue a PhD or career in research, is the love for the topic. And so my blog was born - 'psychgeekgraduate'.

- S