The problem with my brain...

This is what happens when I try to write a 12-page paper for my history class:

This is what happens when I let my mind wander away from thinking about my 12-page paper and ponder on ideas of what I want to do with my life:

Problematic? Perhaps.

Every once in awhile I get inspired with an insane amount of things I decide I have to do. Coincidentally, this usually tends to occur right about when I'm supposed to be focusing on something else (say for example....homework....?). It's when I get my best ideas about the path my life is taking. Let me fill you in on what the past two days of the attempt (and avoidance) of writing this paper has brought into my mind. Here is my (tentative) three-year plan:

• Stick it out in Provo until December. This will be the longest I have stayed in one place since I was in high school. It's a big deal. I'm planning on having my first summer in Provo which I've heard is a party. I personally feel dedicated to making that rumor true and already have several ideas in the works (while also working a lot a lot and making money I promise Dad!)

• Begin my student teaching in January, but not just anywhere. No no, not just anywhere. In the city I've been dying to travel to for the last five years of my life....drumroll please......Washington D.C! It will be fabulous. BYU has an option giving teaching majors an alternative to student teaching in the too-highly-saturated-teaching-field-of-Provo. You can opt instead to teach in D.C. or Houston, Texas. With all due respect to all the Texans out there, I can't think of any other place I'd rather be than D.C. My plan is to stay until April when I will come home for.......

• COLLEGE GRADUATION!!! I know, you thought it wasn't gonna happen right? Sometimes I wondered myself if this seemingly eternal schooling would ever end. But there is a light at the end of my 8-year tunnel. Faint, still distant, but it's there. In April 2011 I will officially be a college graduate in History Teaching with a TESOL minor.

• Next, (this is the new exciting part which I may have forgotten to mention to my family just yet) I'm hoping to be a part of HELP International. It's this awesome humanitarian group that I've been learning a lot about lately. They have programs in six different countries and their projects are really beneficial to the communities they serve. I could tell you all about everything I've been learning but it might just be easier (and more eye-pleasing) to check out the details for yourself http://www.help-international.org/

• After I get home from wherever I end up going during that summer, I will need to start making money, being a college grad and all with student loans to pay back. But here's what I'm thinking just to mix things up a little. I will start teaching as planned. However, not history just yet, but English! (as a second language). I've been learning lately of a lot of really cool programs overseas where governments will pay for your flight, housing, PLUS pay you monthly wage to come teach English in public schools. So I'd still get to teach the age that I love if I can find a job in a secondary school somewhere. And I figure, I'm still using my college education since TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is my minor. I don't really know how long I'd stay, maybe a five or six months, maybe a year. It just depends on what happens between now and then.

• Finally, after returning home from this golden opportunity, I will dive into teaching my favorite subject: history. Who knows where. Somewhere exciting though. But still in the states because U.S. History is my favorite and I don't see a lot of international opportunities to teach it.

So there you have it. That's the tentative plan. I realize that it sounds crazy, I'm not so naive as to think that I can pull it all off easy-peasy. I also realize that what I want could easily change with each new day I have. But I have a pretty strong will (some might call it stubborn), and I know that if life continues to lead me in the direction I'm going now, this is all possible.

And that is exciting.

And if somehow life leads me down a different path that is even better, well, that is even more exciting.