The Young Man and the East

Graduation season is drawing to a close. Congratulations to both my brothers - one graduated from Texas A&M and the other graduated from high school. Exciting steps for them! Even though my "graduation" from junior to senior year is seen less as a hallmark, it has gotten me thinking long and hard about where exactly I will be going in just a year.

For about a year now, I have been saying I want to go to grad school at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC) in Nanjing, China. It is a two year graduate degree program in International Affairs which takes place in China but has an American curriculum. I had the opportunity to visit this program last Tuesday - take a tour, talk to current students, and attend classes. It was an amazing place. The campus, facilities, and people were all incredible. The classes were difficult. They are in Chinese, and my level is just not quite high enough to handle it yet. I was amazed, though, watching all the other foreigners around me as they were able to pay attention and quickly ask and answer questions in Mandarin with the professor. It gave me something to aspire to. But it also showed me that, no matter how much I would love to do this program, my language level is just not quite high enough to get there yet.

How do I get it that high? Well, I could simply take language classes in China for a year or two before applying to the HNC. That would get me high enough, but it would be a whole two years where I am kind of stagnated - just going through only language classes without getting any other work or field experience. There are definitely merits to that and I have a few friends who are doing just that. However, I think I need something different than that. The Peace Corps is something I had thought about for a long time. I could apply to be an English Language Teacher in China for two years, which would get my Chinese level up, give me work experience, and enroll me in an amazing opportunity which would not only help me when applying for high level jobs later, but also surely change me for the better as a person.

When looking at Peace Corps jobs, I saw the same position for Mongolia as well. This, too, sounds exciting and promising. But if I apply for Mongolia and get it instead of China, I would have to reorient myself. Instead of doing the Peace Corps for the Chinese language improvement, I would be doing it for the experience which would help when I apply to other jobs. Therefore, I wouldn't go to the HNC, but would instead apply to other graduate school programs in the United States.

What if I don't get the Peace Corps? Or change my mind about it? What then? Well, I'll also apply to some other graduate schools in the United States. That way I have those opportunities in line just in case. There are other programs I could apply for in China as well, such as one in Beijing which is similar to the HNC but only one year and taught in English. Also, I have been looking into the possibility of getting a job straight out of undergrad instead. I could simultaneously take some extra Chinese classes, get some work experience, and then apply to the HNC. Or, better yet, get work experience, transfer to a job in China after at least two years of work experience (as the work visa laws in China require), then apply to the HNC after working in China and improving my Chinese abilities that way. I would love to get a job in DC. I have looked into several different think tanks and believe I would fit in wonderfully at a place like the Council on Foreign Relations.

Plans and goals always change. For years, I knew I wanted to go straight to law school after undergrad. Then it changed to getting my masters degree. Then it enhanced itself to a masters degree in China. Now, it could be Peace Corps or an American graduate school or a Beijing graduate program or the HNC or a real grown-up job. Who knows? 

Now, this wasn't a post explicitly about China, but it is the kind of thoughts going through my head here constantly. That's what happens when they give me some down time, I suppose. I am finished teaching at the high school, had a week of travels and activities, and begin my internship at Rockwell on Monday. I have been running and exercising more. My routine has been to go to the track at around 8, buy two cups of watermelon and one dragonfruit afterward, and then trying to read a page or two of 老人与海 before sleep (yes, that is "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway in Chinese).

 

You never know what the future holds, but as long as you're participating in the present, it will all work out. That's what I keep telling myself at least...

Until next time!