goodbye 2007
dear 2007,
i hate to say it man, but boy am i glad to see you go. you started with so much promise - i had an amazing fall semester class-wise and was planning on hitting it out of the park for my last months at uri. i had submitted all my grad school applications and was naively awaiting my responses. things were good with my family and friends, and while i was nostalgic about leaving uri i was excited about moving on in the field that i loved, with two solid research papers under my belt.
fast forward six months - i had been soundly rejected from all four schools, getting a friendly "you're awesome, but you need more experience before we can accept you" letter from each. following that, the semester fell apart - i was so preoccupied with figuring out what the hell i was going to do with myself that my grades slipped and my second senior thesis fell by the wayside. i even "graduated" two credits shy of what i needed, and owing $1000 to uri due to a scholarship gone wrong.
so i graduated and jumped on the first job i thought might work out, and moved to boston with ryan. the job didn't work out, and in desperation i spent 5 awful months working 12 hours/day working at a bakery, and getting rejected on a weekly basis from places like oxfam and doctors without borders.
so now it's a year later. fortunately i have a much better job than the bakery, but it's no where near what i want to be doing. i'm writing for a nonprofit newsletter, but that's not enough for me right now. ryan still has yet to move in - the mass. teaching certification system has taken forever and a day. i still owe uri $1000 and two credits - i just can't manage to get my head above water money-wise. and all my friends are two hours away - making it harder to stay in the loop and leaving me generally lonely.
2008, on the other hand, seems to be looking up. ryan passed the last part of his tests - so he can start looking for teaching jobs up here. i really do like my job, and as i get better at it i enjoy it more. and i may be getting a raise in a month or so, which will really help with money. i'm visiting ri more, and loki is great company when i'm alone. i'm saving up for a class at tufts this summer, and hopefully from there i can look at starting my master's in a couple years (which is ok, i keep telling myself - most grad students are in their mid- to late twenties). and through all this nonsense i've been keeping up with the field of development, so i feel like i haven't lost anything since last spring.
so, 2007 - i at least learned a lot with you. all that nonsense about a degree being a portal to better jobs is a bit of am myth, to some degree. there's still a lot of work ahead. and it's hard living alone, but i can make a difference if i put in the effort. and i'll keep applying to oxfam until i'm blue in the face - if only they knew what they were missing!! and once i have the money i'm going to go back to learning arabic - after a year and a half of classes i think that something like the rosetta stone could really help me polish my grammar and vocabulary. and i could really stand to learn french too...but one thing at a time.
and i'm ready to take all this head on in 2008.
i hate to say it man, but boy am i glad to see you go. you started with so much promise - i had an amazing fall semester class-wise and was planning on hitting it out of the park for my last months at uri. i had submitted all my grad school applications and was naively awaiting my responses. things were good with my family and friends, and while i was nostalgic about leaving uri i was excited about moving on in the field that i loved, with two solid research papers under my belt.
fast forward six months - i had been soundly rejected from all four schools, getting a friendly "you're awesome, but you need more experience before we can accept you" letter from each. following that, the semester fell apart - i was so preoccupied with figuring out what the hell i was going to do with myself that my grades slipped and my second senior thesis fell by the wayside. i even "graduated" two credits shy of what i needed, and owing $1000 to uri due to a scholarship gone wrong.
so i graduated and jumped on the first job i thought might work out, and moved to boston with ryan. the job didn't work out, and in desperation i spent 5 awful months working 12 hours/day working at a bakery, and getting rejected on a weekly basis from places like oxfam and doctors without borders.
so now it's a year later. fortunately i have a much better job than the bakery, but it's no where near what i want to be doing. i'm writing for a nonprofit newsletter, but that's not enough for me right now. ryan still has yet to move in - the mass. teaching certification system has taken forever and a day. i still owe uri $1000 and two credits - i just can't manage to get my head above water money-wise. and all my friends are two hours away - making it harder to stay in the loop and leaving me generally lonely.
2008, on the other hand, seems to be looking up. ryan passed the last part of his tests - so he can start looking for teaching jobs up here. i really do like my job, and as i get better at it i enjoy it more. and i may be getting a raise in a month or so, which will really help with money. i'm visiting ri more, and loki is great company when i'm alone. i'm saving up for a class at tufts this summer, and hopefully from there i can look at starting my master's in a couple years (which is ok, i keep telling myself - most grad students are in their mid- to late twenties). and through all this nonsense i've been keeping up with the field of development, so i feel like i haven't lost anything since last spring.
so, 2007 - i at least learned a lot with you. all that nonsense about a degree being a portal to better jobs is a bit of am myth, to some degree. there's still a lot of work ahead. and it's hard living alone, but i can make a difference if i put in the effort. and i'll keep applying to oxfam until i'm blue in the face - if only they knew what they were missing!! and once i have the money i'm going to go back to learning arabic - after a year and a half of classes i think that something like the rosetta stone could really help me polish my grammar and vocabulary. and i could really stand to learn french too...but one thing at a time.
and i'm ready to take all this head on in 2008.