It took me several years before I decided that I wanted to apply to graduate school.
Although I had my degree from undergraduate college, I wasn’t really doing anything related to sociology in the years working as a sales associate for a large sporting goods retailer. I managed to pay off the rest of my student debt and seriously considered the idea of reentering academia. Although jobs are highly competitive in any academic discipline, the social sciences aren’t that much better off than the humanities for instance. In short, the number of tenure positions at universities is not going to increase at any time soon for people looking to teach sociology or any else that doesn’t follow the “hard” sciences. I ended up applying to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and was accepted into their PhD program for sociology. I had never been to New Mexico before, but I assumed it was like Phoenix. Previously I lived in Phoenix for a few years with my family and we rarely needed indoor heat at any point during the year. The temperatures in the winter would sometimes dip into the 30s, but usually it never dropped below 45 degrees. With warm clothing, you can get by without needing indoor heat. However, once I moved to Albuquerque and lived here during the cold season for a few weeks, I realized how cold it gets as the winter trudges forward. I ended up buying a radiant space heater soon after moving to the city. It’s nice living in a desert city that has a much more mild climate than other places out west.
air conditioning Albuquerque New Mexico