I officially graduated college from the University of New
Hampshire on May 19th 2012.
My family came up and we had a great celebration. The feeling of being done with college
has not really sunk in yet but after the summer I am sure it will…especially
since I will not be returning to New Hampshire in the fall. I did however; get a job teaching
English in Israel for 10 months.
So in a way it is similar to another year at college but I get a stipend
for living while I am there. I
also found out I got this job on my final day of class. This was amazing, and has been all
summer, because I am locked into something and I do not have to worry about
applying to jobs, interviews, finding a place to live, or even too much about
preparing for my trip.
Even though college is over, I am extremely grateful for my
experience and I do not have many regrets. In almost everything that I do, I try and look for some sort
of takeaway: something that I may be able to apply later in life or even in my
daily routine. My biggest takeaway
from my college experience is being able to go outside of my comfort zone. In high school, I don’t think I really
tried too many new things. I
wouldn’t try and meet new people, try new foods, or really go out of my comfort
zone much. When I went to New
Hampshire I did not know anyone.
My only contacts were a girl from Ithaca who was 2 years older than me
that I didn’t know and my brothers and friends in Boston. I had never been in a place for an
extended period of time without any of my really close friends. It was somewhat of a challenge for me
and I was even thinking of transferring.
I moved dorms between semesters freshmen year and met a lot of people
there and also joined a fraternity where I met a lot of people. At the time I didn’t really know what I
was getting myself into but looking back on it, it was one of the better
choices I made in college.
Fraternities have a somewhat poor reputation in our society but I can
say first hand that for some it is not true. Besides the social aspect, there is a lot you can learn from
being in a fraternity. The amount
of things I took from it may be greater than anything else in my life. I also made the most of my experience
by caring about more than just the social aspect. The next best decision I made in college was to study
abroad, and as you can see from this blog, it was an amazing experience. If I can recommend 2 things to do to
make the most of your college experience it is to go abroad, and to join a
fraternity or a sorority. These
experiences are things that you will not be able to do ever again in your life
and you may look back one day and say “oh I really wish I went abroad in
college, or joined Greek life.”
Another thing I learned in college is that, whatever it is
that I am doing I will learn it quickly, and do the best job that I can. I got the opportunity to go abroad
again in January 2012 to do an Archaeology field school in Belize. I understood everything really well and
for some reason it was just easy.
Not to come off as cocky but I am smart and am confident that I can do
anything with the proper training and experience, and possibly better and
faster than most people.
This is also why I will succeed next year teaching English. The first month I am in Israel there
will be 85 hours worth of training and then slowly over the next 9 months I
will have a larger role in the classroom.
Then by the end my program I will have some great experience and some
great references for future jobs.
I titled this blog post “as one door closes, one more
opens.” It is a quote by Alexander
Graham Bell, but I herd it in a country song and got the idea to use it as a
title. The rest of the quote says
that we often focus on the closed door and not on the open door in front of
us. Some of my friends were
devastated that college had ended, and they have the right to be. I am a very optimistic person and I
focused more on that open door in front of me. I may have graduated college but I am still young and have
my whole life in front of me. I
also did well and graduated from a great school with a liberal arts
degree. I can pretty much go into
any career field that I choose. I
think teaching is a right place for me because I am patient, caring, smart, and
will be a good role model for our future generations. Sometimes when I tell people I want to teach they say that
they could picture me as a teacher and say that I will be good at it. They might just be trying to be nice
but everyone likes a compliment here and there. Also the program is only 1 year, so if I don’t enjoy
teaching I will not have a lot of time or money invested in the wrong career
choice.
This summer has been great. I am working a lot at a new restaurant in town trying to
save as much money as I can, but other than that I have just been relaxing,
watching tv, reading, and went to a few concerts. This summer has been very stress free, most likely because I
already have a job lined up.
I am really looking forward to starting my job in
Israel. My friends have started
leaving Ithaca and I think by the time I leave only 2 or 3 of my close friends
will still be here. So I’ll
probably be bored out of my mind and ready to take off. I will continue with this blog but it
may be a little different than the first part of it. When I was in Barcelona I was always doing something,
whether it was traveling, doing things in Barcelona, or going out with
people. This Israel experience
will be much different because I will not have as much time or money. My monthly budget will be about $750 a
month (and since my program pays for rent, utilities, and local transportation
that $750 will get me a lot in a month).
I will also be working/volunteering for a lot more hours a week than my course
load in Barcelona so I won’t have as much time. And lastly, I have already traveled all around Israel and
there is a good chance that I will not leave the country
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