Note: I LOVE Academia. And academics :)

I was chatting with a friend yesterday, and we re-decided on something we both discovered a while ago: academics are hard people to date, and very hard to live with.

If there are any academics reading this, please, let me know whether you agree.

The obvious caveat is, of course, that everyone is hard to date and hard to live with. At some point or the other.

But the point is this -

Academics.

The work never stops.

We (and by we I mean my friend and I, but this applies to lots of others I know) never want it to stop.

When ideas are happening, nothing else is more important.

When writing is not happening, everything else is more important, but everything is a trigger for murderous rages, spontaneous combustion or deluges of tears without warning.

It's hard to take.

And that's the edited version.

What else.

The hours are long, the pay is apparently low (though actually I'm perfectly happy with mine. *touches table). We can get very bossy, very know it all. We want to believe in our work. We can't take even half the pressure that this belief entails.

It's messy.

Of course, there are upsides.

But during my conversation with my friend yesterday, I couldn't see any.

Mostly we just come across to partners or potential dates as obsessive, self-absorbed, bad-tempered egomaniacs. We came to this conclusion by analysing my behaviour (eep) and the recent conduct of a potential beau of hers. Shocking. Ghastly.

But then here's the thing:

I looked up from my laptop and asked the room in general, I wonder if I'd be easier to be with if I was in another job.

The Man answered, But I don't find you difficult!

I hadn't known he was in there with me! (See self-absorbed, above.)

Hearing that made my insides flood with warmth.