Without knowing a person, who can say what the LW's real fears, issues, motives or stumbling blocks are . . . but this kind of "restlessness" can (and should) be channelled into something less like desperate grasping for novelty and more like something wothwhile based on continuous challenge, learning, and satisfying of intellectual curiosity.

From my teens and into my mid 30s, I had what some people call a "Skimmer" learning personality: I wanted to know everything about everything that seemed remotely interesting. My interests were all over the place, and I wasn't really that good at, or committed to, anything beyond the superficial. (Radio broadcasting? Teaching? Languages? Music? Politics? Art? and billion other things.) In my mid-30s, I started taking a serious look at "What to Leave In and What to Leave Out" to quote the old rock-radio chestnut.

Since that time, I have made a conscious effort to become more of a "Diver" in my learning style — I have my 2 or 3 most beloved interests, and I focus my time and attention on those, at the exclusion of other things. The more I get deeper and deeper into all the delights offered by my "true loves", the less I am tempted to abandon those worthy things for a new whim like bagpipe lessons or cake decorating or belly dancing or a PhD in . . . whatever. My new motto is "No unnecessary obligations—especially self-inflicted ones."

I know that it is hard to commit to the demands of certain skills, hobbies or careers when there seems to be so much out there that we might miss out on. I realized that I can finally relax knowing that I am spending time with what I should be doing, and where I belong, and other people are taking care of . . . playing the bagpipes or whatever else THEY should be doing. In other words, I have given myself "permission" to not have to worry about those things I am not meant to be doing.

I also believe that when we are young, we make important decisions about life, learning and career without any realistic information. "Political Science degree? Sure that sounds good" said my 17-year-old self. It can take years to get on the right track after making a wrong choice so far back. But it is possible to make better, more informed choices TODAY, and for the next phase of your life. (Many people out there are in careers chosen for them by naive teenagers—a situation that is rarely acknowledged.)

Anyway, that's just how I approach this feeling . . . the LW may need to (again) revisit some first principles: Who am I? What do I want? (As opposed to What do other people want from me?) What are my unique gifts and talents? (Readers of this forum know I'm really big on the idea of each person having unique gifts and talents.) What skills do I most enjoy using? etc., etc.

It is good to always to want to keep learning, and keep growing, and exploring—that's crucial to having a full life. But those things are just "trinkets" if we don't also build real friendships and relationships and make some commitments to ourselves and people and places we love.

Oh, and one other thing, for what it's worth: I have some friends who are Buddhist, and while I am not a Buddhist, I have gleaned a lot of wisdom from them. One of the things they like to say is "You are a Human BEING, not a Human Doing." It means that you are who you are, regardless of where you live, or what you achieve, obtain or possess.

Good luck with your quest.

I have no experience with how to resolve departmental politics, so LW will have to rely on everyone else's opinions here on that regard.

It's the issue of odor that causes my blood to boil—when it is deliberately inflicted on innocent bystanders by certain academic types who choose BO as an ideological stance, as a way of asserting their superiority over "conventional" people they see as "bourgeois" or intellectually unsophisticated.

This is not just something I am pulling out of nowhere. I live in an apartment building that is plagued by a certain married couple, both of whom are University profs at different institutions in my city. They are smart, well-off, middle-class people who live in one of the more "prestigious" buildings in this area—but they have made a conscious CHOICE to limit their bathing. I have no idea what the noble cause is behind this choice, but their attitude is "this is our natural odor. Deal with it." And I am not talking about skipping the occasional day, or just getting a bit of whiffiness when the weather is hot and humid. I am talking about a full-on blast of nauseating stink, detectable from many feet away and which lingers in the elevator long after they're gone.

OK, so that's yukky—but what kills me is that they are CONSTANTLY attempting to step in close to make long, detailed, intrusive conversation, and then are mystified by the fact that no one can stand to be near them. THEY have chosen to put up this barrier, they should live with the consequences of causing offense every time the just show up somewhere.

So what does this have to do with LW's situation? Nothing, except for the fact that people who work in offices, especially shared offices, have a responsibility to stop inflicting their bodily odors on others.

I don't care how messy "Trudy's" desk is, but if she chooses to inflict her BO on her hapless co-workers, she can deal with the natural consequences, including a mysterious lack of progress in her career.

I'm taking LW's side on this one!