ABSTRACT
Scott began graduate school after he got married a few years ago. He feels he has adjusted well to his role in his marriage but now struggles with how to balance that with his graduate school peers. He is honestly surprised that his personal life would have any influence on his graduate education, but he finds that because he is married he hasn't found the opportunity to interact much with his peers. These peers, who are almost all single, want to socialize at times when he is busy with family obligations and in places meant for singles such as bars. On top of this, his wife isn't particularly keen on the idea of Scott hanging out with all the single women in his program. He gets the feeling that he is really missing out on a lot by not having this casual time with his colleagues in the program. In particular, he has realized that key information and insights about the program and how to be successful in the career are shared in these informal gatherings.
