Considerations

A penny for my thoughts? How about a nickel.

With only 3 days until the flag drops on my year-long race through a masters, I've begun the process of contemplation. Not so much thinking about the masters itself, though a quick glance at my first course reading list is enough to cause a tidal wave of fear to sweep through the already flooded academic tensions stirring in my mind. One only must remove themselves from the highly competitive world of academia for a few months to recognize the need for continuity in education; I'm now 7 years removed from what few would call a rigorous academic pursuit in my Spanish undergrad, entering into a field of study (Sociology) that I've not yet sat a single course. Need it be said I doubt and mistrust my capacity to compete with a younger, more educated generation? The only rest for my troubled soul comes from my father, who today mentioned he always thought Sociology was easy and for "people who didn't want to study." Oddly enough, that soothes me.

No, my contemplation comes in the form of nostalgia. As I sat on the porch today with my siblings, their children and my parents, celebrating my waning hours with 4-wheeler rides and conversation, I began to consider my life. My nieces and nephews ran around inventing games, playing those games and then crying when someone bent the newly-founded rules. Observing this highly-entertaining cycle, I began to realize my own role within it. Just a mere 20 years ago it was my cousins and me, all now grown up and serious, sitting on the porch, creating new worlds of adventure limited only by our drifting imaginations.

Three days from now I have a new opportunity. I can either attack this next year with the utilitarian mentality that I've become so comfortable with, or I can throw my head back and enjoy the breeze as my imagination drifts through Europe. I think I'll choose the latter.