I guess since technically the journey has not yet begun, it’s not too late for a prologue:
Fall 08- I enter my 9th and final semester at New Paltz with plans to graduate with a degree in English. I had about as much of an idea of what I was going to do the following January as I did about what I learned at New Paltz freshman year, many beers ago. Nevertheless, I continued the semester watching idly for something to fall in my lap. Unfortunately, the only falling that was happening was the economy and the availability of jobs in the US. I had a moment of desperation and decided to go to the Career Resource Center. After a few meetings and a few tests I discovered a lot about myself: I would make a great Parks & Recreation Manager or Florist, but not a Physicist or Chemist. I know, right? After I found out that I didn’t land an internship at the local florist, thankfully somehow my career advisor set me up with an interview with Target. I prepped like a madman and nailed the interview; I had all the qualities they were looking for and had great answers to all their questions. With merely a few weeks until graduation, all I had to do was wait 7 to 10 business days.
Backtrack a few months- I see my friend Dave from swim lessons(whose blog you can access by clicking that link), Intro to Dance/Movement, and Literary Criticism, in the library. Being a fellow English major and projected December 08 grad, I asked the dreaded question, “So what are you doing after you graduate?” And instead of giving the all-too-familiar answer of pushing air through pursed lips (to make a “pfff” sound) and saying something along the lines of “Beats me,” “I have no idea,” or even worse, “Grad school,” Dave starts going on about how he’s going to Taiwan. I nodded through the conversation, pretended to know where Taiwan was, and told him “Wow, that sounds cool. I wish I could do something like that.” Little did he know, I walked away actually entertaining the thought of leaving the country and doing something amazing.
Fast-forward again- I had been mulling over this Taiwan idea for a little while and Dave sent me a few websites to check out. General thoughts: too extreme, I’m not ready to do that. I couldn’t get it out of my head, though. It was too exotic, too enticing, and too much like something I could really picture myself doing. December 19, 2008. In the midst of one of the biggest snowstorms of the winter, we graduate. Through the blizzard I found myself at Dave’s house, where we proceed to drink in celebration of the ending of a chapter. When things quieted down, I said to Dave, “Dave, convince me to go to Taiwan with you.” And he did. With the hope of an administrative position at Target dwindling as fast as the beer in the fridge that night, all I needed was a little push, someone to tell me that its okay to make big changes and do something out of the ordinary. That night I committed to going to Taiwan.
The next day, surprisingly I didn’t feel like Britney Spears the morning after she married that dude in Vegas. Instead, I felt free and empowered, ready to move forward and start planning my trip. There has been no greater feeling than when I realized that I had the guts to make such a decision.
[Follow-up: I still haven’t heard from Target, even after numerous attempts to contact them.]
