What’s Next

This time last year, Beth and I would spend at least one morning a week sitting outside at our favorite café in Gostivar. Once we sat down as far away from the smokers (i.e. every single other patron) as possible and struggled to give instructions for iced coffee (which is not a normal thing here), we would begin discussing “what’s next.” At the time, I was trying to find a purpose in Gostivar, and Beth was doing her darnedest to convince Peace Corps to move her out of her truck-stop village; talking about jobs and graduate degrees was our escape from daily frustration. Eventually, merely talking about jobs and going back to school wasn’t enough, and thus the rhetorical job search was born. Anytime we had unlimited internet access (and even when we were paying for it), we would peruse job listings in our respective areas of interest, even though by the time we would be available to actually apply for these jobs, they would have long been filled. Beth’s rhetorical job-searching became such a distraction from her more pressing obligations (namely, working on her field paper for her master’s degree, which will be conferred at the end of her service) that we had to call an official moratorium on the practice until we could actually apply for jobs.

Well, that time isn’t quite upon us yet, but I AM in the process of setting up informational interviews for when I go home (in 18 days!). Here’s my plan for the next few years: move back in with the parents, find an environmental job in the DC area, explore my career and graduate degree options while working, apply to law/public policy/public administration/environmental something-or-other school, start going to school in fall 2007. Provided my parents haven’t converted my room into putting green, Step 1 is a sure bet. Next up: finding a job. Part of finding a job includes the aforementioned informational interviews to identify the workplaces that will offer some insight that might be useful before I commit to a graduate course of study.

More to come...