Two Year Plan

Hello Everybody, the clock is officially counting down the days we have left here in Washington D.C. This semester was an event that I had been planning since fall of my sophomore year (2008). Now I have less than a month left. With fall 2010 class registration around the corner I've had to do some deep thinking about how'd I be spending my time post-graduation.

I know what Americorps program I want to do after I graduate. It's called Americorps NCCC, or the National Civilian Community Corps. For ten months, I would perform team-based service projects in five different areas: natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, energy conservation, and urban and rural development. I'd be based out of one of five different campus locations and travel to the 10-15 states in my region. I would be trained in CPR, first aid, public safety, and other skills before beginning my first service project. Like I said it's a ten month commitment chalked full with benefits. The biggest question is should I do it immediately after I graduate in the spring or wait till fall of 2011. Well for now we've decided wait till fall of 2011 so I can take some essential courses that I need prior to graduate school like foreign language and economics back at home in Missouri. Then hopefully I'll be able to apply for graduate school and start that journey fall of 2012. Right now, I've done some looking at American University and their Masters of the Arts in International Development. I'm hoping that this 10 month stint in Americorps will help confirm my beliefs that I want to start a career in international development. So for the past week most of my thoughts have been focused on the next two years of my life.

Work-wise things haven't been too crazy these last two weeks. Two weeks ago when my boss was in Paris work was at a minimal for me so I got to come in late and leave early. This last week has seen me do work on the Threat Assessment. Three weeks ago I had sent out a draft of the Threat Assessment to a panel of our experts and now they are responding back to us with their thoughts, opinions, and corrections. I've been working to expand on some parts of the report. For instance, I've help expand a section of our report on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and the threat of those falling in the hands of extremists or the threat of a nuclear conflict with India. Hopefully some of my language will be used for the report, but my boss was bogged down in fundraising last week so he couldn't focus too much on the reports. If I'm lucky, I'll get to continue working on the threat assessment and writing for it so I could possibly get my name in the back of that too. Work is unfortunately winding down as well. I only have three weeks left which is a bummer because I like doing what I'm doing.

Socially, we've had some fun experiences. I went to my first opera two Fridays ago. Porgy and Bess is the name. It's an American classic which is okay but it's not like Italian or German opera which I think I might like better. Though the opera itself wasn't intolerable, it just wasn't my thing. Though it is nice to say that I've been to one at the Kennedy Center. We have also found a new bar in town called McFaddens and we've been to it three times this last week including a Tuesday night visit. We've also done a lot of walking around the city. After all the protesting two weeks ago the city has become a lot more friendly thanks to the Spring Blossom Festival. This weekend was very packed with people coming to see the Japanese Cherry Blossoms blooming along the Tidal Basin.

I'm going to have to start working on some of my papers for my courses soon. I think I'll start writing my big research paper on NATO and Europe tomorrow. The semester has definitely gotten better thanks to the 21st birthday, but I can't believe I've been here so long already and that it's almost over. Going into the new year 2009 I had the goals of finding a summer job, finding a summer volunteer program, finding someone to sublease for me when I leave the next spring, and finding an internship for my semester. Now at the start of 2010 my goals are bigger. Find an Americorps program, find a graduate school, find out what you want to do with your life. What a difference a year makes.