My Roller-Coaster Life

Hi:-)

The last couple of days have been VERY emotionally draining for me. One minute I'm down and wondering how in the world I'm going to make something of myself professionally. The next I'm more confident and almost hopeful that something is going to work out. And the next I'm stressed again about how I'm going to juggle my summer schedule and find time to plan my future at the same time. Ugh, it's worse than being a teenager again!!

Anyway, here's the most recent drama that has dominated my life over the past few days. It started with getting the financial aid from BC. I felt crummy and ready to tell them to shove their offer of admission and pile of loans they call financial aid. But I did some reading in the financial aid handbook and e-mailed a lady about a grant/study program. She just got back to me and said the grant is available. All I have to do is write an essay (asap of course...but I'm an English major so it's not too intimidating a task) and e-mail it to her. It wouldn't completely erase the financial burden but it would definitely alleviate it a lot. I guess there's no guarantee I'll get it either, but she didn't mention the competition.

Then, yesterday, I got an e-mail from one of the people writing me a letter of recommendation for a job. She said I should try to get my application in by today because they are doing interviews next week. Naturally, I get this e-mail at 5pm, I have to wait for Peapod, and I have to babysit both that night and the next day. In other words, getting two more letters together in less than 24 hours and dropping off my application is impossible. So, needless to say, I'm stressed and kind of grumpy because I'm thinking that this means a lost opportunity.

But, today, I got another letter so I'm thinking that I could possibly get this application in by Monday if I can scrounge up another letter. So I have two options, which are as follows: 1) pray the letter from my advisor arrives tomorrow, 2) ask another family friend to write me a letter (I have a letter she wrote for me a couple years ago when I was applying for internships and it would only need to be slightly modified). So I think I'm going to ask her and then drive my application over on Monday and hope for the best. Wish me luck!!!

Yeah, so to make a long story short, my week has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Thank goodness for weekends! Hasta Luego!

Graduation Brings No Answers...Only More Questions

Hola!

I know it has been absolutely FOREVER since I've posted anything but recent events have put me in the mood to write and reflect. So here goes nothing as I try to recap the last few months and vent about my present dilemmas.

First of all, I somehow managed to survive my last semester of college:-) We had some good times and some tough ones as we delt with the deluge of papers, etc. By some strange miracle, I actually ended up getting the best grades of my college career that last semester...go figure. Yes, I know I'm a dork for that but there's nothing I can do to change it now (even if I wanted to).

The graduation ceremony itself was very nice. It started Friday evening with a Bacclaureate Mass (I hope I spelled that correctly...) in the Bascilica. We all processed in wearing our robes and sat in the Bascilica as a class for the last time. On Saturday, we had the actual graduation which took forever but it was still a nice celebration. Wolf Blizter was our speaker and he talked about journalism in today's world. After his speech, our class speaker gave a short address (very funny and filled with our fond memories about the university) and then we were called up one by one to receive our degrees.

Since then, I've been at home with my family trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing with myself next year. Even though I got into graduate school, I don't think that is going to work out for this fall. Somehow I ended up getting into the wrong program at UCONN so that's a no for right now (if I want to go, I need to reapply for next year). I got into Boston College which was exciting but there have been hiccups with that as well. The problem here is mostly money and the exorbant amount it costs to attend BC. At first, I simply hadn't received the financial aid report and no matter how many times I called nothing changed. As it turned out, the information was going to school and not my home address (even though they assured me four times that this was not the case!). So I FINALLY got that information yesterday. Naturally, it's bad news. They are offering me $2,000 in work study and $24,000 worth of loans. Sound yucky? It only gets worse! The cost of going to BC is almost $50,000 which means I'd need to come up with the other half. Right. Anybody know someone who would be willing to give me some money? Just kidding! And don't get me started about how much I hate the financial aid process....

So plan B is to work as an instructional aide for a year and save some money and apply to cheaper schools next time. It's just that giving up Boston and going to a nationally ranked school (it's number 19 for education) is going to be bittersweet. Oh well. Such is life I suppose. I just wish that all my careful preparations didn't feel like they were for nothing, you know?

On the bright side, my parents like having me home and getting a job sh0uldn't be too difficult. I'm applying for two aide positions in some local school districts (one of which, incidently is my alma mater so people there know me). Wish me luck!

In other news, my parents are volunteering for a program called Pups on Parole. Inmates at a nearby prison train service dogs during the week and families take the dogs on weekends to socialize them. So for the past two weeks, we have had Henry, a year-old yellow lab, at our house on the weekends. He's a little energetic and needs some work on a few of his commands (mostly because he gets excited or distracted). But really, especially for a lab, he's a very good dog. He doesn't pull on his leash, he usually listens, he like us, and he loves to ride in the car. And, so far, he has behaved admirably when we've taken him out in public. Really, it's just the right amount of dog for our family to get our fix but not have to deal with the real inconveniences during the week.

I think that's almost everything for now. Happy Summer! Hasta Luego!