not yet ready for grad school

I was trying to find something in my email and I came across this little gem…a heated exchange between my parents and I:

i am not going to masters immediately because
1) I have had enough of only studying, I need some real life experience to motivate me to study more.
2) I don’t really know which field within development I want to focus on. It would be useless of me to go do a masters without really knowing what I want
3) I can find jobs that I am satisfied with for now without doing a masters.
4) I know I will go back and do my masters because I like studying, just not now (I have been studying non-stop for 16 years!!!!!!!)
5) I need real life work experience for me to learn better in graduate school
6) most of the programs I have been looking at encourage people to work for a few years before going into their graduate programs.
7) times have changed since you were in school. people now routinely take a few years off before going back to graduate school
8) everyone who has worked in the field that I have met this year has said it was better to have a few years of work experience before going into graduate school
9) everyone has a graduate degree these days when they are finally going out to look for long term work. Having a graduate degree doesn’t make you stand out, having good work experience does.
10) i am still young and i want adventure. i want to travel and meet more people before I have more responsibilities
11) I have not really started looking at graduate schools. I have not talked to enough people to know which school is good for my field. And grad school usually starts in september, so the application deadline is in january. there is not enough time!!!
12) i want to enjoy my last few months at ubc without having to worry about all this. i want to do well in my classes, organize more activities and get to know more people
13) i don’t want to. i have a good feeling about taking one or two years off. most of my life i have followed my feelings and they have not yet disappointed me.
14) one or two years taken out of my education is nothing. it will help me gain much more than what i will lose. in fact, i cannot think of anything i will lose by starting graduate school one or two years later.

In solidarity with those whose parents love you but are pushy about getting “more educated.”