OK, you should not do a PhD unless you want to be a researcher, really not! But I always did, and so I began this route into academia.
I am an archaeologist. My dad is a professor in dentistry, so I always visited him on the job, and when I was a kid he used to do 'experiments' with me in the lab. I remember when I used to walk between the university buildings as a high school student, thinking that they would all think I was a student (although I doubt they thought much about me at all). I knew I would be going to uni, but I somehow that is still a mystery to me, started studying law, and so ended up on the classy, downtown campus between the pearl earrings and ralph lauren shirts - me, with what we called 'freaker' clothes, simply the weirdest clothes you can imagine; a sort of cross between boheme and grandmother style.Needless to say, I did not fit in.
I trudged on for a few years. In fact, for four and a half years. I never really got to know anyone, but I had all my old friends right there in the city, so I ghdidn't really worry, and I was quite prejudiced about my posh peers. The last year, I knew I was going to quit, and my exams wenrt horribly. My analytical brain was not well suited for citing rules and interpreting them correctly, I was way more interested in the society behind the rules. At the same time, my little sister, 12 yrs old, started talking about becoming an archaeologist. I was so happy for her! A while later, she of course changed her mind, and I was really sad about it. And that got me thinking - maybe it was me who should become an archaeologist.
So after my 4,5 yrs of law school, only 5 months shy of completion, I was finallyon he campus that I so loved, and I fit right in.It was bliss, and I knew already then that I wanted to go into acdemia instead of practice law or any other profession. All the while, since I started studying, I had had this extreme fequency of cold sores, up to every 2 weeks, which were accompanied by our mutual friend, TN. I was put on daily antivirals, which mostly kept them in check, and I only got breakouts maybe 4 times yearly or so. The TN had already spread to all branches, but were always tagged on to the cold sores in the beginning.
The studies went great.I got my first fieldwork, and really enjoyed it. I was eager to get into postgraduate studies. My marks had soared, and I went to Exeter, UK, to pursue my MA in Experimental archaeology. Just before that, I went back to law school to finish my dissertation - which I did in the sociology of law. I got my revenge with top
marks in a study about law students! :) Off I went to the UK, and I did my 1 year MA.Back in Norway, I knew they would not accept me into,