oh the places I'll go: If only I knew what to choose!

Today's dilemma: what do I want to pursue under the umbrella of student affairs/higher ed.

Maybe not so much a dilemma, since I don't have to choose now, but I feel like the sooner I realize the better off I'll be.

Reslife. Having been an RA for 3 years of my undergrad, it is something that I naturally lean to pursuing. I am *hoping* to get a graduate apprenticeship in this area, I just don't know if it something I could do long term? I miss it terribly, but it seems like such a stressful job that I don't know if I could handle it for a long time. So much respect to those who do! Sometimes it seems like a job that's hard to get away from, although that may be only if I go down the Center Coordinator route. For sure need to look into my other options under the Housing umbrella :)

Student Life. I don't know that I was ever "heavily" involved in Student Life, but anything I was a part of , I definitely loved with all my heart. If I could do Camp Crimson until I'm 83, I would. If I could work with Sooner Scandals until I'm 96, I would. My biggest fear about going this route is I don't know if I'm right for it. Sure, I love it a lot, but I don't know that my personality suits the area well... I'd be afraid of falling short in comparison to those who are much more involved I suppose.

Maybe somewhere else entirely! I think I would enjoy working for the journalism college/department on a campus (I find it hard to pull myself away from how much I love media, advertising, PR). I know I would probably love working in recruitment or another job where I could work with freshmen.

All I know is I love college, I love sharing my enthusiasm with others and making them love college like I do. Hopefully no matter what I fall into, I'll always have the chance of doing that. <3

Where do I begin?

I spent time today looking into schools across the nation to try to come up with some idea of where I would like to go after I get my master's degree (I know I am jumping ahead of the gun seeing as I haven't even applied, much less got accepted, to graduate school)... but I digress.

My current thoughts are that I would like to stay away from Texas and Oklahoma so that I may experience something different. I am also avoiding the general tornado alley area considering I think I've been plagued enough with them my past four years, and I'm not too keen on California because of earthquakes. Random, I know, but I don't particularly want to live in natural disaster-prone areas.

Other than that, I am not sure what I want! What should I even be looking for in a school I am considering working at? For anybody who teaches in the university atmosphere, what brought you to the school you are working at? I really love the University of Oklahoma, but I just don't know that is in the cards for me to stay put. If it is though, I'll be much obliged. Back to what I was saying, I am just not sure what to look for - at this point I don't know that I'm entirely sure even what I want to do in the realm of higher education. I really think I would enjoy anything where my job primarily involved dealing with new students because I love their enthusiasm. Even more so I love students who aren't enthusiastic because getting them to that point just feels that much better. I am heavily weighing out my GA options in hopes that they may help me discover what I love the most. I'd love to work with student life, but am also highly interested in the leadership and volunteer graduate assistantship. I also think it would be fun to work with housing again because I don't truthfully know if I can ever give up my attachment to residence life!

As far as universities go, I think I would like to work at another state university since it's what I am most used to, but am also interested in working with the Art Institutes. A lot of research needs to happen in the days to come though. I'm hoping to find universities I might like so that I can pursue an internship with them between my years of graduate school and build a rapport with them.

As for what else is to come in the year.. a JOB! I am searching for a job as we speak and have found two that I need to fill out the applications for this week and hopefully I will get one of them, or at some point soon another job. The two I am looking at are in the education field (one at the local high school and the other at the university in town).

Guess I'll go work on those applications now, but I will blog again soon :) !