You can be anything you want...now figure out what you want

[osprey_archer]

My classes are over! Except for one final next Tuesday which doesn't count because it's, like, next Tuesday. And then I have all of December off! Yay!

Unfortunately, this puts me one term closer to having to decide what to do with my life, or at any rate next year, or at very least next summer.

I'm thinking "hermit" has some definite potential, here.

No, more seriously. I'm actually working on a list.

1. Freelance tutor. I enjoy tutoring people and I am, excuse my arrogance, damn good at it. But this is really more a way to earn pocket money than a living.

2. Teaching English in foreign lands. Plus: Foreign lands! Double plus: my Russian teacher has connections at a place where I could work! Minus: I've never actually taught a class. Possibly I would be unable to control them, let along teach them. Double minus: The students who were supposed to be teaching in Russia this year were supposed to start in August. Their visas still haven't come through.

3. On a more long-term scale, I considered being a high school history teacher. (Assuming teaching English worked out.) My dad said, "You think you'll be teaching at a high school like the one you went to. What if you end up teaching in Podunkville, where in a good year only 5% of the students go to college?"

And a gray vista of pain opened before me. "What do you suggest?" I asked.

4. "Professor," he replied.

"If you don't think I'll get hired by a decent high school," I said, "Why on earth do you think anyone would hire me as a professor?"

Besides, professors are expected to produce research. I don't think I have it in me to do original research and write novels, and I would rather do the latter.

5. Writer. Except I have to eat.

My dad points out that "How am I going to feed myself while writing?" is a less alarming (and probably more truthful) question than "WHAT DO I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE?" I know what I want to do. I just don't know how I'm going to fund it.

6. I suggested I could be the next Emily Dickinson and live at home forever, scribbling in the garret. (Note to self: must convince parents to buy house with garret.) My parents do not seem enthused.

7. Which leads us back to hermit. It might keep my expenses low enough that I could support myself with freelance tutoring...

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking of somehow squeezing volunteering in high school or middle school into my life at some point. I think teaching even in Podunkville High could be very cool. Sometimes you can feel like you're making the most difference to people precisely when they're NOT on some preprogrammed college track. (My husband has enjoyed teaching at a state university way more than teaching at an elite university for this reason.)

Also, community colleges are another possibility: you wouldn't be expected to do research if you were teaching at a community college.

... But a life of adventuring and foreign travel sounds good too, for sure! What if you filled in with temp work while you waited for a visa to come through?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think it might depress me that so many kids in Podunkville wouldn't have any interest in history. But who knows? Maybe I'll discover a secret talent for inspiring students.

The main thing right now is to find out whether or not I'm good at and like teaching. If the answer to either is no, I'm going to need to scrap the list. Thus - going abroad to teach, so I don't spend tons of time and money getting credentials and THEN find out I'm not good at or hate teaching.

(And I'm going abroad just to go abroad. But there is a method to my madness.)

I figure I'll see just how late the visas come through this year. I don't want to end up temping all next year waiting for a visa that never comes, when I could have gone to teach English in Argentina or wherever. I need to practice Spanish almost as much as Russian anyway!

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

Re: 5--

My philosophy advisor told me that if I really was going to major in philosophy, I had better minor in plumbing or some other trade, or I was going to starve to death. (IIRC, he spent the 10 years before coming to teach at our college working as a building inspector--for the city of Seattle, I think.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

O.o And the job market for humanities professors has only gone downhill since!

One of my religious studies professors was a motorcycle cop before he became a professor. I've always wondered if there was some case that drove him to study religion, searching for an explanation how the world could be so cruel.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

My son is in the exact same spot you're in, though I will assume you did not take the seven year plan for college and he has a few years on you. ;)

He'll be graduating in May with a history degree (minor in theater.) What's he going to do after that? He has no clue. Not everyone does. You can be sure, though, you WILL find something worthy of your efforts. I think it's all the possibility that gets to people like you and my son (and me!) How do you choose ONE thing to do with your life??

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Exactly! So many choices! How do you know which one is RIGHT?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Lots can be! You can do lots of things! You start out with one, then move to something related, then make a huge leap to something completely different, then add in a little something extra, then that leads you to a new joy---well, you get the picture.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

You don't. That's why you start in a likely spot and go from there.

[so-december.livejournal.com]

I personally think you'd make a good professor. I think you are capable of doing original research.

But then again, this is just an observation depending on what I've seen in your LJ posts.

Do think about it, though. Isn't your dad a professor? Perhaps he could give you some advice or something?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I do think I could do the research. I'm just worried that I'd spend all my creative energy on that, and have none left for my own writing.

My dad's a professor of engineering, which is a slightly different thing. His opinion is that I could be a professor if I want to - he doesn't have an opinion whether I would have leftover energy to write novels.

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

Gosh, Dad, stop killing my dreams!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I believe a similar line crossed my lips. "I had a plan!" I cried. "And you ruined it!"

"Do you really want a plan that would make you miserable?" he asked.

"That's not the point!" I wailed. "It was a plan!"