Should You Stay or Should You Go? How to Escape the Sunk Cost Trap
A question to ask yourself whenever you're tempted to throw good money — or years — after bad
It’s been a year since I graduated from college. I’ve just finished up doing twelve months of full-time service with the Americorps program in California. For the next chapter of my life, I am going to be pursuing a master’s degree in political science from the University of Oklahoma.
I’ve taken the GRE, filled out my application, gotten accepted, and moved all my stuff into a studio apartment in Norman, OK.
It’s a few weeks before the semester starts, and I’m attending an orientation for new poli sci graduate students that goes over what to expect from the program — what kinds of courses are offered, what the classes will be like, what kind of research we’ll be doing, and so on.
As I sit there in a circle of chairs with a bunch of eager-looking students, I start to get a pit in my stomach that only grows as the minutes tick by.
A sinking realization hits me: I have no idea what I’m doing there.
Well, this is not exactly true.
A lot of the reason for what I’m doing there has to do with Brett.
