97 Days Until the End
It dawned upon me as I was ordering my cap and gown on Wednesday that, yes, I am (“grades pending”) graduating. It’s really surreal. The past few weeks have also thrown curve balls at me for my future plans.
I always intended to stay in the Greater NYC Area. Most likely get a job in Manhattan and have an apartment either there or in Hoboken - the latter being the current plan. It would be great and a new world of being truly independent would arise and surface.
However, the email from Amazon last week asking for a (technical) phone interview has pushed open the door of possibility that leads to living on the West Coast for some time. Upon asking the boyfriend what he would do if I got the job and decided to go there, he said that he would go out there with me and find a place there. He’s the greatest thing to happen to me so far (aside from, you know, existing).
And then a third door opened, but not necessarily for me: he got a phone interview with Microsoft for Hardware Design/Manufacturing. He’s super excited; I’m super excited. We have thus made a very loose pact that if we both get our respective jobs, we’re moving to Washington State (Amazon in Seattle, Microsoft in Redmond).
I personally don’t think I’ll stay there forever. I was talking to one of our administrators here and she said she went out for grad school on the West Coast. She said 2 years and it was like an extended summer vacation (though she was in California… Washington is a *tad* colder); however, she said after 2 years she was yearning to come back East.
Maybe that’s all I’ll need. Get some big corporate experience, and come back awesome. Who knows?
But then there’s the plan if everything just goes wrong: Stevens offers the “+1” (as dubbed by students) program. Essentially, you get to go to Stevens for grad school without the GREs and a proportional percentage of Stevens financial aid that you had your last year of your undergraduate career. It’s a pretty great program, and - as the Dean in charge of the program said - “it’s in your back pocket.” Essentially you can sign up for the program, but you have until June to cancel in case bigger, better plans come your way. I will enroll, but it’s a matter of picking the right Masters for me. I didn’t really want to pursue one, or if I did it would be at a design school or something, but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see.
As for current events, my internship is great, boyfriend and I have our hotel/resort reservations and plane for Orlando this Spring Break, and this weekend is a three day weekend that I should use to catch up on work. (I technically should be working on stuff now, but I just need to pour these feelings of the past two weeks.)
I should also apply to a few more jobs. I haven’t heard back from a few places that I applied to, but I haven’t been so anxious to follow-up because of the internship I have. I hope it acts as a door-stopper to keep that door opened for full-time employment (the company has been rapidly expanding and hiring new people, so I came in at the right time).
Alright. Caroline out for now.
