Earlier today I spent about an hour or so between thinking about and writing a PLA Blog post. My topic started off as “balance” but after a while I realized that my post would be totally uninspired and really quite boring because it was boring to write. So I took a break to work on some Arabic homework and this got me thinking about what I would like to do in the future.
I am currently double majoring in French and International Politics and only have some vague ideas as to what I would like to do after college. Actually, that is probably stretch because I honestly have no real clue what I want to do. Or at least I didn’t until tonight.
Let me rewind a bit. During our Q&A session with President Ericson, he described how he got to where he is today. To my surprise, it wasn’t a very clear path and it was seemingly, ultimately a result of not really knowing what to do next or having a clear idea of what he would like the future to hold for him. And well, I think we can all agree that as the President of a major American University, President Ericson is a pretty successful man.
This is where I come in. As President Ericson described his career path, I was able to identify with the sentiment of not knowing what to do after college. I love French, I love speaking it, I love listening to it, I love reading it, I love French culture. I guess you could say I love almost anything French. So that is one of my majors. But honestly, it doesn’t really lead to a specific career. So, because I like to travel and would like to work internationally, at least I think, I added on International Politics. But that didn’t really help me figure out what I want to do later on either.
Sometimes I am jealous of the people that seem to know exactly what they want to do with themselves in the real world. I’ve considered many options. Like President Ericson, I have contemplated the possibility of becoming a lawyer. More recently I have thought about becoming a teacher or working in Washington D.C. in the State Department. To be honest though, the more I think about it, these options don’t really inspire me.
What has inspired me was a trip I took to Dakar, Senegal this past summer. It is different on so many levels, to say the least. I must admit that I was shocked to see how underdeveloped it was, even compared to Morocco where I spent the greater part of the summer. Anyway, while I was in Dakar I was fortunate to visit an NGO that helps women and young girls develop some practical skills so that they are able to find work in Senegal instead of choosing to try to secretly immigrate to Europe or the U.S.
To be honest with you, the condition of the building where the NGO was housed was very rough compared to what we are used to at Penn State. I couldn’t stop wondering how the young girls could possibly pay attention the teacher with all the flies around and the blazing heat that would have made it impossible for me to learn. But I realized that this is, for many of the girls, the only access to education that they have.
I could keep going on about my stay in Dakar, but to get to the point, what this trip made me realize is just how lucky I am to live where I do, to have access to education and so many other things.
So tonight, as I was looking through the different majors that PSU offers, I clicked on one called Community, Environment and Development (CED) and my world seems to have turned upside down. As I was reading the description, something just clicked and since then I have decided that CED is what I should major in with a concentration in International Development.
Now I still don’t know what I want to do in the future. There is no, one specific job that sticks out in my mind. I do know, however, that I want to help give opportunities like the ones I have, to people that just don’t have access to them.
Next up: meet with my advisor and get myself on track.