Kevin, of my favorite politico-blog Ghost in the Machine, just turned 26 – making me around 4 months older than him.

It’s interesting for me to realize that. He’s married, has had a fabulous time working for James Carvillle, and is now looking to go back to grad school. I, on the other hand, went straight into grad school and am just now 6 months into my first ever full-time job. Sometimes I talk to people I graduated from undergrad with (who have been on the job for 3 1/2 years by this point) and I wonder if going to grad school was a waste of time.

I’m in a “masters level” job, but not in the field I did my graduate work in. If I had realized it was what I wanted to do, I could have become a residence hall director with just a bachelor’s degree and could now be thinking about going to grad school in student affairs. Or, if I had used my BA in computer science, I could be making $40,000 or $50,000 a year now – but I’m sure I’d be hating every minute of it.