Life Directions

When I was deciding to go on my year of service, one of the big reasons could be decided by the following flow chart:

I have no idea what I want to do with my life>>>I have chosen to go to a very exciting yet expensive school>>>I do not want to pay a ton of money to go chill without any direction whatsoever>>>Taking a gap year will let me explore more options.

Also,

Spending time doing service brings divine confirmations>>>I could use some confirmations right now>>>Then when I actually start university I possibly have more direction>>>like maybe an actual major or career plan, sort of.

So one of my goals was advancing in the process of Hey I Actually Know What I Want To Do With My Life. Which had kind of been floating in the background of my thoughts and prayers for the past, well, 19 years, but in a more concentrated form the past 5 months. To no avail, decision-wise.


At least until last week.

And last week, a few things became apparent, and flowing together, and talked about by people who I trust and whose advice I take (like my parents and roommate and friends and other friends) until it culminated in this super exciting moment. Those things were:

I love the West Wing, but I actually don't want to work in an uber-political position, because politics is just not me.

I want to learn lots of languages, like French-than-Farsi-than-Portugese. Also, I am good at learning languages. And as boring as this sounds, I am good at learning grammatical structure.

I want to travel for the rest of my life.

As much as I said I don't want to be political, I'd like to work in community development. Especially in developing countries. The way I see it, is developing countries are like Junior Youth; they are forming habits and values and personalities that they will have their whole life. They don't have to un-learn habits (for instance, a country with literally no government, that is in the process of writing a constitution and set of laws can incorporate themes such as equality of men and women, universal education, and elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty much more easily than a country that needs to reverse laws and change habits that have already been made.) And so if I could animate a developing community like I animate junior youth groups, I could help emphasize things like the importance of education and justice, things that I truly believe in.

I miss We the People and talking about governmental philosophy.

So, these, along with some other vague thoughts that can't be described even in a roundabout way (see previous) led me to this:

I found a major/minor combination that I like, that makes sense, that has career options, and that is offered at both schools I am considering.*

What? you may ask. And, of course, this whole post has basically just been building the suspense in the audience. Unless you scrolled down to the end after you figured out what the gist was, in which case GO BACK AND READ THE BEGINNING YOU SNEAKY LITTLE SNEAKSTER.

If I went to Lewis and Clark: I would major in Foreign Languages (probably with the two language concentrations of Spanish and French) and minor in political science, in which I would take a lot of international government classes as well as We The People type classes. And I would spend a semester abroad (Can you say FRANCE?) and enjoy every minute of that school.

If I went to University of Alaska Fairbanks I would wear thick socks 98% of the time, major in Foreign Languages (same concentrations), have an amazing roommate, and minor in Global Studies. And I might go abroad a semester, and I might go abroad on my own one summer (because I would be able to afford it.) And I would be able to ski.**

So people, there's my exciting moment. Even though statistics and experience and everybody tells me that there's a good probability I'll change my mind, I have at least a plausible future. And that makes me happy.

In other news, there is a killer fly in our house.

*For those of you who don't know: Paying 20$ a month rent has possibly changed my thinking a little about how much I want to spend on an education. I mean, I still LOVE Lewis and Clark. To the tune of, I read about every single residence hall and the 26 page housing contract last night (they say in there that the vacuums will not pick up small animals. I thought that was funny.). Its just a super lot of money to be paying. A super lot. And so I am also exploring UAF as a backup if financial aid is not a miracle package.

**Which  I actually started missing. Not the competing, just the skiing and hanging out with friends and hot chocolate afterward.