I've lived in this place and I know all the faces
Tomorrow is my last day of do-nothing-ness until June of 2007. Friday I start my new teacher orientation, which is a half day, from 9-2, and then Monday I start at 7:30 and go till 3:30 with in-service training, time to work on our classrooms, and group work with all of the other teachers at my school. I've been thinking lately about how things have changed since high school and in the last couple of months I've talked to friends from high school and college and a lot of us seem to have the same conundrum: What on EARTH are we supposed to be doing for the rest of our lives? Charlie, who works for Amazon in Seattle, WA, and is currently making a salary of just short of six figures his first (now second) year out of college, who just bought a car, but still has no furniture in his apartment, is thinking about going to graduate school. He likes Amazon a lot but he, like a lot of the rest of us, has tried his hand at what he thought he wanted to do, and has since adjusted that plan. He's been looking into graduate school for some cool computer and biology and physics thing. Ask him, I'm not sure what the details are, just that it's this cool thing where he would use his computer programming skills to do things like make an individually responsive IV drip or pacemaker or something. It sounds cool to me, and if he wants to go to graduate school, I'm all for it. Just as long as he's still my friend and we still get to talk on the phone ... well, we're down to about once a month, but that's good enough for us. Amanda, who has been working for a lab in Houston for awhile, is returning to graduate school this fall. In some biology/chemistry something. I should really write these things down when people tell me but I always just get the general gist. Something with biology and research and stuff. Laura is among the perhaps most prepared of us who graduated from college. She just got her law degree from Washington and is going to be practicing law for a school system in the outskirts of St. Louis this year. But even for Laura the future is unknown. Jeff has a year of Concordia Seminary to go and after that they have no idea where they're going. Laura says she is telling herself they'll end up in North Dakota. Because that way if they don't, and end up almost anywhere else, she'll be happy. Sounds like a plan to me! Sarah just graduated from law school and is currently in Mexico relaxing after a harrowing experience with the California Bar. She doesn't have a job yet but she knows she wants to stay in California. Bryant has a degree in Geology. But he, too, changed his mind. He is now a super-senior (is that what they call undergraduate students who already have a degree but are still in school?) working on pre-medical studies. He wants to go to medical school. I'm unclear on what he wants to study once he gets there. I know he wants to look into orthopedics and try to find a cure for his back problem, or at least make people aware of the dangers of scoliosis. So maybe genetics? Orthopedic surgery? Not sure. Same as Charlie and Amanda, I have a gist, not the details. I guess my point is even those of us who had the best of plans in college, they don't always turn out the way we thought they were going to. And even the plans that end up being pretty close aren't EXACTLY like the we thought they were going to be. Circumstances change and plans change accordingly. Take me, for example. Who would have thought that I'd be married at 23 and happily settled with my husband and my dog at 24? Not me. I'd have laughed at you if you said I'd be married by now. I always figured I'd start a career and THEN get married. Not the other way around. Of course, having a supportive husband makes starting the career part that much easier. After all, what better way to get a good start than with someone who supports your decisions and wants more than anything for you to be happy? Nothing more for me, thanks. I'm full for now.