Headed into the final stretch here...I dunno if 20 days seems like the final stretch to anyone else, but it certainly does to me! I guess I only respond to pressure, because I've been more active today than in the last two weeks combined. A healthy dose of fear, I suppose!
I've scheduled more interviews, am trying to find as many organizations as possible to speak with, AND am trying to sort out an internship for the upcoming year (cause a thesis, full course load and weekend job clearly aren't enough!) Regrettably, I keep seeming to miss internship application deadlines by just a few days! It's a curse, but i am bent & determined, and will thus, persevere!! If I have to just start emailing people saying, "Hey I know you didn't ask for it...but I'll work for you for freeee!" I will.
I've also been grappling with the issue of next summer...where to go, what to do.... Maybe it's just me, but I find it so difficult to make choices when my options are pretty much-anything.......anywhere. Maybe I just really like ellipses...
I've got another year of coursework in old Dublin, then the world is my oyster, or job offer. I was talking to my sister recently and was thinking about how nice it would be to be a little closer to home, working in the states or even Europe. The option to see the fam more than once a year would be fantastic, but I'm sure it's possible just yet.
I'll be looking mostly in India & SE Asia I think, since that seems to be my biggest gap in world experience so far. If so, lucky you, a whole new place that I can over-simplify, misinterpret and in general, give you an extremely biased account of! I'm looking forward to the next internship because it will be more so on my own terms, I can find an awesome women-empowering, human rights-focused, or human-trafficking concern organization and get some valuable experience, without the stinky burden of research and my thesis looming overhead.
I'm also excited and ready for it because I'm feeling more and more that this is the path I wanna be on. I've found in the last 2 months how little I'm bothered by the stuff that used to drive me crazy last time. Maybe it's because I constantly expect it, or I've already gone through the painful adjustment phase of expat life and into the bitter acceptance phase. 9 times out of 10 (the one time being when i'm really tired or hungover) I don't mind the long waits, or mess of the market, or the crowd for the bus, or the stares, even the echoes of "muzungu" in my ear just wash over me. It all glides past in a wave of "this is life as we know it" and doesn't bring me down or affect my days the way it used to. It's not been an easy path and I had a pretty painful year of adjustment, but I'm very pleased with this result.
In an odd way, I feel like that, coupled with my love of flying and airports and jumping into awkward situations when i'm only kind of understood, and my affection for noises & gestures over words makes me feel oddly suited for this career path...I guess we'll see in the time to come, but bring on the next adventure!
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