Changing Plans

When the end of high school roll around many students start hearing a symphony of, "So, what are you going to do after graduation?".  The assumption with high school nowadays is that you'll either go to college or join the workforce.

Graduating from college is a little different though.  At this stage, people expect you to get a real job.  Maybe you go to grad school.  You've invested in your education and it's been very much worth it, but now it's time to pay back on that investment.  Over the past few years I've had this set-in-stone vision of what I would do after graduating from TLU and it went something like this:

1. Go to graduate school to get my Master's in Counseling Psychology.
2. Work as a therapist for children and adolescents.
3. Maybe get my Ph.D. sometime after that.

But as this semester has started, I've begun to realize some things.  I'm just not ready for grad school yet.  I've spent over 3/4 of my life in school.  I don't know what it's like to not do school, and I know how to do it well.  It's my comfort zone, but I think it's time to leave that comfort zone.  Another huge piece in this puzzle is that I don't actually know what I want to do.  I know the path that I could easily take to be "successful", but I don't know what I need to do.  It was during the opening convocation of my freshman year, that I first heard this quote:

"The vocation for you is the one in which your deep gladness and the world's deep need meet -- something that not only makes you happy but that the world needs to have done."

My main problem is that I just don't know how to put together what makes me happy with what needs to be done.  I have some inklings or whispers of things that I want to do, but I'm not sure how to pull them together.  I know that I want to help children.  I want to help them explore the world and learn and thrive and see it as the beautiful place that I know it can be.  I want to help children understand that they are important and that they can do great things no matter what background they come from or what other people have told them in the past.  Another aspect of this is that I want to help the adults in these children's lives understand how they can better interact with and understand them.  I have pieces of things that I care about, but I don't know how to meld them into one career.

I recently began exploring some different Americorps programs.  The programs that make up Americorps support nonprofit organizations in a variety of fields and in communities all across the country.  My plan is to apply with programs in the Austin area, particularly ones working with children and education.  This way I'll get the change of scenery that I've been craving but without having to sacrifice progress towards my goals.  By working with the populations that I want to help in my career, I'm hoping to gain a better understanding of what actually needs to be done and how I can help it get accomplished.

Overall, I'm feeling confident and excited about this new path.  I think that it's going to give me a chance to grow more as a person while also allowing me to help the people that I want to help.  The future is looking bright and I keep being reminded that sometimes we need to give ourselves options and be unafraid to take the road less travelled.