Uncharted Waters

Every soon-to-be-college graduate has had the fear of the "real world" looming over them at one time or another. I am happy to annouce that I'm not afraid anymore. (haha, ok, let me refrase that). COME AND GET ME WORLD! (ok, maybe not that either).

You see, the thing is, an actual plan is coming together. I'm beginning to find the answer to the ever popular question: "so, what are you going to do with your life after graduation?" Let me first just back up a bit and tell you how I've reached this point of thought.

I've always been interested in any and every aspect of human interraction, conversation, and hispanic culture. The only problem with this when I first came to King's was that I was asked "what do you want to major in?" (another one of life's major questions)... and I could only respond with "Well, I like to talk to people... and I want to be fluent in Spanish!" Unfortunately that answer alone couldn't really point me in the direction of an actual/precise career choice. Nevertheless, here I am, a senior Spanish and English (Writing) double major... and my "fluency" well.... with only my studies at King's and a brief 4 months abroad... I'm not quite there yet!

So as I see it, I still owe it to myself to accomplish that goal of fluency. I really don't think any college (especially one maintaining a liberal arts atmosphere) should ask a recent high school graduate "what do you want to major in?" or even "what do you want to be when you grow up?" because it's misleading; it doesn't help the student the long run. Rather they should be asked "what are your interests? what do you want to learn more about? what 'floats your boat'?" so that the college can then help the student turn that desire/place of interest around in such a way that there's a more concrete career that the student will thrive for and ultimately be happy in!

While some might think that's a stretch.... all in all that's what I believe I have found. There's a statistic that states that something like 97% of recent college graduates loathe their first few jobs after college. But you know what? Either I plan on being included in the measely 3% that got lucky and are happy with their post-grad career... or I'll be a part of the miserable 97% but will still carry on with my innate optimism that I'm well on my way to where I want to be! No one said it was going to be easy; that we know for sure...

But here it is. My thoughts, hopes, dreams... all wrapped up in an acronym that has many forms: TEFL (or TESL or TESOL)....... Ultimately what it comes down to is, I'm going to move to abroad *Returning to Madrid, Spain!!* after I graduate to get my certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (or English as a Second Langage --or-- English to Speakers of Other Languages)!!!!!!! This (if all goes well) will allow me to continue my Spanish language studies as well as be immersed in the culture while helping others out and teaching English abroad!!

Now my main task is to sort out the different programs that offer certification to see what my exact options are!! Career Planning and Placement is helping me through this but I've been told that I'm a "special case" haha... because I'm sort of the first to actually want to tap into the job market overseas after graduation. So as I see it... it will be an adventure! And anyone who has been interested enough to read this whole post (or others of you who have read this in the name of procrastination)... thank you for joining me as I venture into the seemingly uncharted waters of an overseas job-search!

:-)