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[lifetothefullest]

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[lifetothefullest]

[Yes, what about college? Lance is always curious about other people's experiences in school at any level, since his own are so unusual.]

[hardwearing]

[ What, him? Sorry, Lance. Kyna knows he never went to college. ]

Oh, she was talking to you. I got drafted out of high school.

[evocation]

Yeah, tell us about all the frat parties you went to.

[lifetothefullest]

[Oh. Way less interesting.]

I was fourteen; the only parties I attended were ones my roommates were having or were invited to. By the time I was old enough to really get invites myself, I was in grad school.

[And grad school does not have fun parties, for the most part.]

I went to various study parties though, if you want to hear about depressing levels of nerdiness.

[Which he doesn't recommend.]

[hardwearing]

[ Wash looks pretty skeptical, at that. Not that he's an expert, but. ]

Studying is not a party.

[evocation]

[She bursts out laughing.]

Now you have to tell us about the study parties.

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance rolls his eyes at both responses.]

Hey, any gathering of people that involves talking and food can count as a party. They're just... Sometimes really bad parties.

[Like funerals. Definitely bad parties.]

But study parties were exactly what they sound like; a bunch of sad college students sit in a room and study, eat pizza, and occasionally declare they're dropping out or becoming a marketing major.

[hardwearing]

[ That's definitely not a party. Wash remains unconvinced by this definition... adding food to a gathering doesn't automatically make it a party, especially not if you specify that everyone is sad. Otherwise yeah, funerals would count, and things like AA meetings. He just shakes his head at Lance. ]

[evocation]

God, Lance, that's the saddest thing I've ever heard.

[She's still smiling, though.]

How many years were you in college, anyway?

[lifetothefullest]

I did say they were depressing.

[As for the question--]

About eight years. Two for my bachelor's degree, two for the master's, and then just under a combined four for the two doctorates.

[hardwearing]

[ Seriously? ]

That seems really fast. You must've just worked nonstop.

[evocation]

Really fast but also way too long.

[lifetothefullest]

I was able to have a lot of classes waved for the bachelor's, and the doctorates required separate research and dissertations but could be built on the same master's, which I completed in a normal length of time. So it sounds more difficult than it was.

[Although all of that said, Washington is right; he pretty much worked nonstop, because he was very motivated to succeed. It wasn't necessarily a good thing, though.]

It's a long time to spend in college, but having not attended high school it kind of balanced out.

[hardwearing]

Did you actually enjoy doing it, though?

[evocation]

[That... is a good question, actually. Kyna just waits for the answer.]

[lifetothefullest]

[Yeah, that's... A question, which Lance has to decide for several seconds how he wants to answer.]

I was not exactly that person that studies for fun, so as far as a lot of the classwork went, no. But keeping the end result and goal in mind made it worth doing, so it's not like I hated it, and the doctorates were also a lot more interesting which is why I did two of them.

[So, basically, he enjoyed research and writing papers, but coursework was a means to an end more than anything else.]

[hardwearing]

You were really sure, then. About what you wanted to do with your life?

I can't imagine that.

[ He was never given a choice. ]

[evocation]

Yeah, me either. Especially not at fourteen.

[Kyna is still pretty directionless, oops. Congrats on being the most together person in the room, Lance.]

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance just nods at that, because yes, he was really sure. But his situation was strange, and a mix of a whole bunch of different things coming together, and absolutely not normal or anything that should be considered close to such.]

I was just a weird kid; it's not wrong to take longer to decide, and honestly it's probably a better idea to wait anyway. More life experience and that sort of thing, and sometimes you don't even know that what you want to do exists at first.

[Some fields are a lot more obscure than others, after all.]

[hardwearing]

It sounds kinda nice, though. Knowing.

Kyna asked me once what I'd do if I weren't a soldier, and I still can't answer that.

[ Which might be a little much to admit to Lance, but it's the truth. ]

[evocation]

[Kyna shakes her head a little at Lance.]

Now you sound like my brother.

[And as for Wash, well... To be fair, it doesn't sound like he has much of a choice where he's from, anyway.]

[lifetothefullest]

Well, your brother's right, then.

[He offers the response with a small grin of amusement, although he looks at Washington more seriously.]

I have a friend who was in the military for a long time, and he wasn't sure what he was going to do afterward himself. It's pretty common for soldiers to have that problem.

[So it's nothing strange, or anything Lance is going to judge him for.]

[hardwearing]

[ Wash's expression shifts to something almost confused. ]

Afterward?

[evocation]

[Whoops.]

Um... It doesn't sound like retiring or leaving the military is a thing where Wash is from.

[lifetothefullest]

Ah.

[Great, another one of those dimensions.]

Well, there's an 'afterward' here, in this place. Options for professions are a little more limited, but it sounds like any choices are more than you might've had otherwise.