Sun Is Shining

Okay so quick catching up on my life.

I am still looking for a full time position and trying to occupy my time with other part time adventures.  I am the advisor for a teen leadership group which I am loving because those kids are rockstars.  The program has them plan four events and I just have to help them stay focused and facilitate some of their discussion.  It's not the most exciting thing I have ever done but these kids are fantastic.  During their weekend retreat, we would give them a time to be someplace and they would not only be on time but early and sitting around in a circle, playing a game they organized themselves.  They function well as a group which is not always the case with teenagers, especially since they don't have very much in common.

A few weeks ago, I started developing a teaching assistant program for my local synagogue to help their teenagers feel more confident working with kids in a classroom setting.  I wrote out an outline and submitted it to the education director and found out today that they have a budget to pay me and I start teaching at the end of January.

Working on this program is going to be super stressful for the next month but since most places are slowing down (if not freezing) hiring due to the end of the year, it seems to come at the perfect time.  It's also looking like it might lead to more part time things through the synagogue in the future.

It's looking like I am going to stay in Southern California for a while because I am realizing that I hate the cold!

I will attempt to update this now with the progress on my extra projects and will hopefully have good news on the employment front in the early new year.

It has been a really strange summer so far and it is bound to stay this way. The main reason that this is so weird is that part of me feels like this is not my home anymore. Most of my high school friends are not sticking around as they are paying higher rent than I am and as a result are living in their apartments/houses. I came home thinking I needed a break from being in new places, but now I wonder if I should have just appreciated my summer before the "real world" starts. My life is split between being here, back at school and a little in DC. I am thinking that if I choose to get a job, DC might be the best place for me, specifically, somewhere on the red line would great. It's strange feeling like I have no real place to call home anymore. Is home where my parents are or is it someplace else? School is home in a more general sense because I move from room to room each year.

Part of me is ready for the next year but the uncertainty of what follows scares me. I have no idea what I want to do. Do I want to get a job and push off grad school if I go at all? Do I want to go to grad school for a degree that I probably can't pay off? Do I want a job in the profit world where while I might make more, I may not be as happy? Or, if I get a job I love at a non-profit, can I afford rent?

My sister just graduated from high school, the same one I did and I realized that I will probably never have to set foot on that campus again and it was a bittersweet feeling. There were good times and bad had on that campus but it's no longer meant for me. She's going to start college (not a Lehigh but another great school) and eventually, I think she is going to start feeling what I am about being divided. Last night I told her she scares my friends because they only know about her graduating and remember her as a little kid rather than who she is now. It still scares me that she drives but I know what they mean because I feel the same way about their siblings. Liz then told me I scare her friends for the same reason she scares mine. Scare them? Right..... Try scaring myself. People I graduated high school with are done with college already. I could be done with college already. It's like going to camp on the first day, scary but exciting all at the same time. I miss camp and all that it is as a little bubble.

Well, I am at work and am now going to go finish putting labels on binder tabs.

Good times never seem so good

So I am working with a girl from a local high school on her college applications this semester. She and I have been working together since my freshman year of college which was her sophomore year of high school. Her goals have changed a lot in that time and she makes me laugh on a regular basis as we try to brave through the college application process together. One day she asked me what made it worth it and that got me thinking.

We all go to college to get a degree, a piece of paper that is supposed to somehow make our lives have greater value but really, I think it's the lessons we learned outside of the classroom that have enhanced our value. By moving away from home, we have to learn to be on our own and fight our own battles rather than letting our parents fight for us, even if the battle is something as minor the pile of clothing taking over the room. We learn to lead, we learn to follow, we learn to ask for help, and we learn how to deal with a wide array of different types of people.

I participated in a prospective student chat a couple of weeks ago and lots of students ask why I chose Lehigh or what makes Lehigh special and the truth is that I chose Lehigh because of the feeling I got when I was here, there was no doubt that it was the right place, the people would go out of their way to help me even though I was a junior in high school at the time. The advice I gave my younger sister as she navigates the process is that you can choose where to apply using all the facts like size and statistics but in the end, the real choice is made because of something inexplicable. I was more excited the day the Lehigh acceptance showed up than when I got any other letter and knew that it was going to be an amazing four years and I wouldn't trade the experience I have been having for anything in the world.

I am still having trouble coping with the fact that I am almost finished with a full two and half years, I wish college was longer just so I could spend more time enjoying Lehigh and all of the traditions it has to offer. Lehigh/Laf is next week :) and if you haven't heard about that, you will.

Now off to deal with my to do list.

And I started staring at the passengers waving goodbye

Right now is kind of a scary time for me. I am almost halfway through my junior year. This means that I have passed my halfway point of college and it feels different. Rather than getting involved in new things, I find myself getting more involved in the things that I am already doing. I am also not studying at Lehigh this spring so I am spending as much time with my friends as possible before that time.

Finding my program for next semester was an interesting experience. I wanted to gain some more hands on experience than a summer internship could provide so I decided to go to Washington DC and intern there. It was one of those things that I found on a bulletin board and just took a chance on looking into and found the same excitement I found when looking at Lehigh's website after I got in.

I am a Lehigh tour guide and try to stay involved in admissions so I meet a lot of prospective students and seeing them as well as the fact that my sister is currently a senior in high school and I'm jealous. They have an amazing experience ahead of them where ever they end up but I would be even more jealous if they ended up at Lehigh. There are so many things to experience, there is no way to fit them all into one four-year experience.

Now, being a junior means that I have to get back to the piles of work that I have to do. :)

that it´s all for the best?

Everyone I have talked to about the simple fact that I write this has told me that I should write about something different. I guess I will touch on the two main things that most people suggested that I talk about and then as usual, see where things go.

First, my summer experience with Lehigh in Ireland. There are tons of universities that have study abroad programs but it appears that Lehigh is unique in the way this program is offered. It was six weeks of research, and four weeks of classes all while living in Galway. I LOVED GALWAY. It was a beautiful city with a lot going on without too many people. I will eventually go back which is different than I have felt about a number of other places I have been to in the past. The other groups that were there didn't seem to have the one point professor there like we did and their accommodations were not as nice as ours. It was a really good adventure and it seemed that we had a lot more fun than a lot of the other groups.

Second, my younger sister is applying to college this year. While I was moving into my new room at Lehigh, she was traveling the east coast with my dad. She is looking for a very different school than I was when I was at this point in the process. Granted, I guess I always knew I was going to end up at Lehigh but it's interesting to hear her critique of everything about the schools. I am a tour guide on campus and I know that my tours can really shape the perceptions students walk away from Lehigh with and to be honest, that idea terrifies me. I really believe that everyone has to find their own deciding factor that causes them to fall in love with a school. My sister came back from all of these college tours and reminded me that no one wants to hear about why security features were started at the school even if it is part of the school's history.

Okay so as usual, I am very distracted right now so I have to go but this was the first week of classes so it was insane.