The only bad part about graduating is that everyone wants to know, and feels free to ask, just what exactly you plan on doing with the rest of your life. I might as well just put it out there that I don't know. Character flaw or not, I try not to get too tied down to any super specific plans.
I once read some statistics about how people of my generation no longer have
careers. We will end up in, on average, as many as 5 different job changes throughout our lives. Whether or not that is exactly true, I like the sentiment and it makes me feel better about not having some giant life/career goal that I am working towards. Besides, I have always felt that the events/interests/opportunities that have shaped me the most are things that I have rather unexpectedly fallen into. (I mean, who would have thought I would live in Spain? I was the person that always had my Mexican friends help me do my Spanish homework in high school.) Anyway, I also change my mind a lot.
OK, all that to say, I don't know exactly what I will be doing in the future. I don't have details on the big picture. I've got some ideas in the back of my mind, but I'm just going to let them simmer for a while back there.
I do however have some relative plans for the next six months or so. Ever since I started my Master's program (ok, actually even before I started it) I knew that I would need a break when it was finished (and oh-boy do I ever!). I started a travel fund. I ate rice and beans for 3 years, worked sometimes 2 and 3 jobs, and set aside a little sum.
And now it is sabbatical time (alternately known as my
pre-tirement or
quarter-life crisis). I'm taking the plunge and letting my bank accounts lie fallow. It's time to rest, and travel, and just live for a bit. I'll figure out the rest later.
Now, my only problem is that I have been so busy and generally too singularly focused on finishing my degree that I have not had much of a chance to even begin planning my trip. Did I mention that I was planning on leaving just after the new year? Oops. So I have spent the last couple days holed up in coffee shops and bookstores trying to plan. I've got some general ideas, but the possibilities are so enticing and endless that I'm swinging back and forth between overwhelming excitement and mini-anxiety attacks. All this to say, if you've got ideas--send them my way! Nothing is (totally) out of the question.
Which is kinda how I like things.
