My Future
I realize that this page may not be exciting to most, but you might find it interesting if you would like to know more about me or you are a person with whom I am closer but just never discuss things like this.
When it came time for college application my senior year, I applied to three schools: Collins, IADT and Carroll. I wanted to continue my education in webdesign because it’s something with which I’m already familiar and it comes fairly easily to me. I was accepted to all three, but IADT was my number one choice and was obviously the closest to home. It was so close that I was able to visit it and while the visit was fairly pleasant, I was worried about the high living expenses of Chicago. After my representative left and they failed to notify me, I was a little peeved but things really went downhill from there.
I decided to eliminate IADT from my list and gravitated to Collins because it was much closer to what I wanted to study than Carroll. I found that it was difficult to find a school that incorporates both the technical and the artistic aspects of webdesign/programming into its courses, but Collins seemed to do it well.
However, Collins is outside of Phoenix, Arizona which is not only across the country, but in a place where I know no one. Perhaps, as some suggest, I was setting myself up to fail by choosing a college so far away, but I like to disagree. I knew that, financially at least, college would be a challenge. My mother was in no way able to provide anything and I just happened to pick schools which were really fucking expensive.
Thus the FAFSA filling out took place and I found out that I was able to recieve quite a lot of money in grants. I also recieved some in scholarships, but this amount wasn’t very large. So I was left with several thousand dollars unpaid and I had to wait so that I could apply for student loans. Basically, there was no way possible I could take out a loan without credit and there was no one to whom I could go to coborrow.
So it happened that I didn’t have to worry about flying across the country to a place I’d never been because I couldn’t even attend the school. With nothing else to do, I began working at Wal-mart and moved out with my best friend.
Since meeting my husband, Rian, online in 2003 we’ve developed a strong relationship and it’s obvious as anything that we’ve something good. After a year and a half of marriage, I joined him in Japan and this was a small speed bump in my journey to college.
Despite the setbacks and other challenges life threw at me, I still wanted to go to college so that I could be educated and have a career so that I will have a better quality of life than that which I had living at home. I began exploring other career options such as Funeral Service and signed up for online classes through MATC. I am currently a part time student taking online courses.
This will take up the next few years of my life. I will graduate with an Associate’s Degree and certification to be a funeral director. I intend to continue school to earn my Bachelor’s Degree in either psychology or sociology and am considering going further and earning a dual graduate degree.
For quite some time I have wanted to spend two year in the Peace Corps. I would really love to be able to help people in a hands on type of manner and it also provides an outlet to do a little traveling. I think this would be a good experience and it was something I wanted to do right after college, but timing might be different due to the factor you’ll read about next.
Sometime in my life I would like to travel, to Europe, Canada, Australia, etc. I perhaps would not mind living someplace in Europe. It makes me anxious, at times, to think there’s a place to which I’ll never have gone so I’d like to see as much of the world as I can.
I don’t have any definite plans for children or retirement, although I do want to purchase some mutual funds. -chuckles* Mostly, I’m not sure how things will play out in my near future, let alone the distant future.
