I'm alive! My apologies for being gone for so long, but so much has happened! This past semester was the most stressful yet; additionally I learned a few things that can hopefully help me plan better for the future... and who knows, maybe my experience is something you can relate to.
Where to begin?
> I quit the hospitality industry for good.
- I realized that if I ever wanted to make "the transition" into a career in my field of study I need to get serious. Making a living (earning income) is important too, but my mentor always told me that people were too busy not making money to go and make money. I figure, I would rather struggle and be broke now in order to free up my spare time to do other career-building things. Luckily I wasn't unemployed too long because an opportunity to be a campus fellow for a non-profit organization came along; it suits me pretty well and it's something I like to do. In addition to that income we took on another roommate (who is pretty awesome, by the way) by sacrificing my office to help lessen my expenses at home.
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And apparently this draft has just been sitting here for, oh you know, 7 months...
Well for the 4794829 time let me get you up-to-speed :
Today is July 25, 2014. Summer classes are officially OVER! I'm headed to Washington D.C. for 6 days next week for an action-packed conference with my student organization (geez I love them). I'm waiting to hear back if I was accepted to attend the State Policy Network's Annual Meeting in Denver, CO this coming September, so keep your fingers crossed! I'm still pretty much unemployed by choice, aaand "bit the bullet" by finally deciding to succumb to student loans. Crap. I'm another statistic now.
But the most amazing news of all?! 4 more semesters (Fall '14, Spring+Summer+Fall '15) and I can finally GRADUAAAAAATE! I really started to question whether this whole "graduation" thing even existed. At this point it seemed to be one of those things that you always hear about and see pictures of yet it is out of reach and, therefore, embossed with mysticism that you end up deciding your time should be better spent studying things more pressing in the present. Or maybe it's just me. Hmm.
Fun fact: I've read a book that wasn't school-related for the first time in over a year (if you're into hard sciences and cool peeps, check out Dancing Naked in a Mind Field by Kary Mullis - he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating PCR... this dude is a trip, and it's an easy read).
I'm working out my new list of goals because I've been so bogged down with classes since forever that my ultimate goal was to earn good grades. There's just less than 5 weeks left until the Fall semester starts so this downtime is the best time to collect my thoughts and decide where to go from here.
Sad news, though. My father passed away during finals week of the spring semester - April 29, 2014 at about 5:30pm from a GI bleed. It was so awful, probably moreso because I was in a different state and couldn't be there - even if I did rush to get there I wouldn't have made it in time. I got a phone call late one night on the eve of my International Law final that he was unresponsive and headed to the ER. I got through the exam, but later that same day he didn't make it. I still had another final exam before I was free of school burdens. Once that was done I had a hellish trip to get through 3 states away, deal with a terrible human being, get my stepmom in order to head back west with her father, and drive myself 3 states over home a few days later before I could properly begin the grieving process. Losing a parent really sucks, and "sucks" doesn't even come close to the immense sadness, emptiness, and overall grief you experience. It's been just over 3 months now and although my life has seemingly gotten "back to normal" (whatever the hell that means) there are moments when it hits you in the face, screaming, "Dad's dead, did you forget?" It's the worst. I'm so thankful though for the time I did have with him, and an amazingly supportive fiance, soon-to-be in-laws, family and group of friends to help me through it. It's the worst when people bombard you with "I'm sorry for you loss" comments and text messages - I never really knew what to say when someone lost a loved one because I've never really experienced it until now. People reached out asking if there was anything they could do, which I appreciated, but there wasn't a single thing. Although, props to my professor with that last final who offered to let me leave the exam at any time if I needed -voiding my exam in lieu of an "I" grade until I felt up to it-.
Anyway, hopefully that's one lesson/hindsight experience you all can have a heads up on. The only thing that is certain in life is death - yet usually it's the most unexpected thing we'd ever experience.
I'm going to work on that list of goals, and I hope you do the same! Where are we going to go if we don't aim for anything?
