My last semester of High school and most of the summer I thought I knew what I was going to do; I was going to major in Biochemistry and minor in German. Sounds great, right? But immediately upon entering Arlington Hall on the UTA campus for orientation I suddenly decided that I in fact had no clue what I was going to major in or do with my life. All the planning and research I had done all went down the toilet at that instant. I nervously walked up to one of the tables in the Lobby.
"Hello, may I help you?"
"Yes ma'm, I would like to change my major."
"And what would that be?"
"Undeclared."
Right then I felt an immense amount of weight lift off my shoulders, but yet at the same time the most unsettling feeling came over me. I'm the girl with the plan who knows exactly what she wants to do, and here I was filling out a form to change my major to undeclared. I was scared, and at many times wanted to go back to the table and tell the lady I had changed my mind, that I still wanted to do Biochemistry. Something is better than nothing, I tried to tell myself. While having all these mixed emotions I couldn't help but feel some sort of self-empowerment. I was going to college and I could now make my own decisions...even though I now had no idea what those were.
This past semester I took a few classes that I could see myself seriously considering for a major. I took Introduction to Classical Mythology, Western Civilization, Introduction to Anthropology and two Government classes (those of which I am not interested in but are required. Immediately I fell in love with Classics and within a few months I knew I had to take more classes in it. Western Civ. I loved, but I knew that I didn't really want to major in history and Intro. to Anthropology I absolutely hated. It was so boring -talking about evolution and how we came from monkeys was repulsive to me. My Uncle, I later found out majored in History and Anthropology. The idea of majoring in Anthropology sounded so disgusting to me, and I told him that after my first semester I was never taking another Anthropology class.
Never say never.
Just a few weeks ago during class registration I found myself sitting in front of my computer not signing up for one Anthropology classes, but two. Just a month or so before the semester had ended and I was in one of my rants about how stupid Anthropology is my Uncle very patiently and logically pointed out that sometimes what you major in will not necessarily have anything to do with your career. That the degree is really just a stepping stone to something else. I took this to heart and thought it through...I knew that if I could bare through all the Anthropology classes I would love what I would be able to do with the degree. So, this coming Spring semester I am taking Principles of Archaeology and a class on migration. Just in a matter of months I have gone from absolutely loathing Anthropology to seriously considering it for my major.
But I needed to be sure, so I started to look up things I could do outside of school to reassure myself that this was something I actually what I wanted to do. The school Anthropology site was a dead end but on another site I found a link to an archaeological website that funded digs around the world. After about an hour or so I decided that the dig in Israel in the Jezreel valley suited my taste perfectly. After seriously discussing it with my parents (they were skeptical about me going to flying to Israel by myself) they gave me the green light to mail the application.
That was about a week ago. So this morning while I was waiting for my dearest Uncle to come by and jump start my car I checked my email and to my delight I received an email saying I was accepted into the program. So now I am counting down the days until I arrive in Israel...185 to be exact!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Bike Ride
This is my very first blog so please bare with me (even though I am sure I am the only one who will actually ever see this).
This past Saturday night I drove through an agonizing amount of traffic from Fort Worth to Plano to see two of my best friends. I haven't spent any real time with them in months and driving all the way to Plano (I absolutely hate driving) was the only way and time I was going to be able to see them this winter break. I got there at about 7:30 pm (I left a little before 6) and was immediately embraced by my friend Nenna (my nickname for her) and then with her help I carried my things into a house that had 7 girls hiding, waiting for the right time to jump out and scream -trying to scare me. Appeasing them I screamed, more in delight than in fear, and embraced all of them. Not only was this the only time I was going to be able to spend with my friends but a part of the deal was that I had to help babysit 6 little girls all younger than 8. Saturday night was short and sweet; we spent the time watching movies, playing and letting the little girls brush our hair. Finally, just before ten we cleaned up and helped them get ready for bed. Once everyone was settled down my friends and I enjoyed a bowl of ice cream and caught up.
The next morning was semi-hectic (it always is when there are four hyper active little girls running round) but it was enjoyble as we lounged around their house until about 11 when I was talking to Mrs. Sweat and told her how much I love bike riding even though I hardly do it and would love to do it more. To my surprise she asked me if I really wanted to go bike riding and within a half hour we were outside preparing the bikes for our ride. Me, Nenna, Jessica, Mrs. Sweat, Sydney and Jamie (the last two her daughters: Sidney 4 Jamie 6) headed out. Ten minutes into our ride we had to turn back because Jamie was being difficult but besides the delay we were on our way again. After about a forty five minute ride we returned to the house, this time picking up the oldest daughter named Jordan and dropping off Sidney. We then decided to ride over to the McDonalds to get drinks. For the first 15 minutes we rode on safe bike path until we reach a semi large intersection where we had to cross six lanes of traffic that were going opposite ways. Mrs. sweat rode over first all the way to the other side while the rest of us stopped in the middle waiting for cars to pass. Instead of the cars continuing they stopped, waiting for us to cross. Confused (probably because of the nervousness of crossing such a busy rode) we sat still on our bikes completely dumb founded thinking: why are the cars stopping? That's weird.... Mrs. Sweat's hollar from the other side aroused us -especially me, because I stupidly decided to race across the road without looking. Right as I was about to pass the third lane a car came racing towards me and if it wasn't for Mrs. Sweat's screaming at the person in the car I probably would have been hit. The car slammed on it's breaks -stopping about only fifteen feet from me. Once Mrs. Sweat's heart beat had slowed and I had forgiven myself for being so stupid we continued, crossing another intersection again but this time, thankfully, it was uneventful. Once we were at the McDonalds we decided go through the Drive-thru since we had no place to put our bikes. But to no avail they would not serve us so we just decided to bring our bikes inside the McDonalds. Once we had got our orders we all sat down and talked. It was so nice to sit there for a good half hour and just talk. I knew that Mrs. Sweat had travelled so I asked about where she had been -and to my surprise and pleasure I found out that she and her husband (he wasn't at the time) took six months and travelled around the world. I then, in return told her about how I wished so badly to go travelling this summer and that I had already applied to go on a dig in Israel. I was finally able to openly share my hopes and desires with someone who understood me; for years all I have wanted to do was travel -and travel the way I wanted to.
After a very uneventful (to my relief) ride home we had to part ways. It was great seeing and spending time with my friends and also with the Sweats who encouraged my desire to travel...overall it was an excellent weekend.
This past Saturday night I drove through an agonizing amount of traffic from Fort Worth to Plano to see two of my best friends. I haven't spent any real time with them in months and driving all the way to Plano (I absolutely hate driving) was the only way and time I was going to be able to see them this winter break. I got there at about 7:30 pm (I left a little before 6) and was immediately embraced by my friend Nenna (my nickname for her) and then with her help I carried my things into a house that had 7 girls hiding, waiting for the right time to jump out and scream -trying to scare me. Appeasing them I screamed, more in delight than in fear, and embraced all of them. Not only was this the only time I was going to be able to spend with my friends but a part of the deal was that I had to help babysit 6 little girls all younger than 8. Saturday night was short and sweet; we spent the time watching movies, playing and letting the little girls brush our hair. Finally, just before ten we cleaned up and helped them get ready for bed. Once everyone was settled down my friends and I enjoyed a bowl of ice cream and caught up.
The next morning was semi-hectic (it always is when there are four hyper active little girls running round) but it was enjoyble as we lounged around their house until about 11 when I was talking to Mrs. Sweat and told her how much I love bike riding even though I hardly do it and would love to do it more. To my surprise she asked me if I really wanted to go bike riding and within a half hour we were outside preparing the bikes for our ride. Me, Nenna, Jessica, Mrs. Sweat, Sydney and Jamie (the last two her daughters: Sidney 4 Jamie 6) headed out. Ten minutes into our ride we had to turn back because Jamie was being difficult but besides the delay we were on our way again. After about a forty five minute ride we returned to the house, this time picking up the oldest daughter named Jordan and dropping off Sidney. We then decided to ride over to the McDonalds to get drinks. For the first 15 minutes we rode on safe bike path until we reach a semi large intersection where we had to cross six lanes of traffic that were going opposite ways. Mrs. sweat rode over first all the way to the other side while the rest of us stopped in the middle waiting for cars to pass. Instead of the cars continuing they stopped, waiting for us to cross. Confused (probably because of the nervousness of crossing such a busy rode) we sat still on our bikes completely dumb founded thinking: why are the cars stopping? That's weird.... Mrs. Sweat's hollar from the other side aroused us -especially me, because I stupidly decided to race across the road without looking. Right as I was about to pass the third lane a car came racing towards me and if it wasn't for Mrs. Sweat's screaming at the person in the car I probably would have been hit. The car slammed on it's breaks -stopping about only fifteen feet from me. Once Mrs. Sweat's heart beat had slowed and I had forgiven myself for being so stupid we continued, crossing another intersection again but this time, thankfully, it was uneventful. Once we were at the McDonalds we decided go through the Drive-thru since we had no place to put our bikes. But to no avail they would not serve us so we just decided to bring our bikes inside the McDonalds. Once we had got our orders we all sat down and talked. It was so nice to sit there for a good half hour and just talk. I knew that Mrs. Sweat had travelled so I asked about where she had been -and to my surprise and pleasure I found out that she and her husband (he wasn't at the time) took six months and travelled around the world. I then, in return told her about how I wished so badly to go travelling this summer and that I had already applied to go on a dig in Israel. I was finally able to openly share my hopes and desires with someone who understood me; for years all I have wanted to do was travel -and travel the way I wanted to.
After a very uneventful (to my relief) ride home we had to part ways. It was great seeing and spending time with my friends and also with the Sweats who encouraged my desire to travel...overall it was an excellent weekend.
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