So, lately I have just been thinking about what I am going to do when I graduate.  Granted, I have a year left, but that time creeps on you really fast.  I already cannot believe how close that year feels.  I have the rest of this semester, all of next fall semester, and than I will be student teaching in the spring.  Crazy, right?

So… what do I do when I graduate in the spring?  Do I do what everyone else does, apply to grad schools, apply for some jobs?  Or do I do what I’ve always wanted to do?  Teach abroad?

I don’t know what it is about Europe, but it has always fascinated me.  More than fascinated, it has captivated me.  Amazed me, hypnotized me.  Shall I continue?  Anyways, after being in Italy for a month, I realized why I have always been so intrigued by Europe.  Pictures do not do it justice, reading from history text books do not do it any justice.  You have to see it.  You have to be there to soak in all that Europe is about.  I love history, I love architecture, I love art, I just love old things.  When I stood next to the Roman Colosseum, I stood next to something from a time I cannot even imagine being apart of; it is a whole other world.  Something about Europe speaks to me in a way that my hometown and surroundings do not.  After having a teaser of a month in Europe, I realized that one month is nowhere near enough time for me to spend there.

I know that when I decide to come home, home will still be here waiting for me.  I will always have my family and my house to come back to.  Regardless of whether I go abroad or not, I am going to have student loans; why sit home and pay them when I can be working abroad?  Even if I pass up a job opportunity in LI, there will always be more.  I am young, I have room for trial and error!  What’s meant to be will happen, I believe in that.

I can always remake money, but I can not remake the life I live.  I need to capture it and take it for what it is and what I want it to be.  Therefore, after I graduate from SUNY Cortland, I will enroll myself in a TEFL/TESOL program in Spain and continue to live there for 6 months to teach abroad.  I just feel as if it is something that I have to do for myself, otherwise I will always regret it.