I'm not going back to Willamette for my final year. Lots of things played into that decision, but in the end, it was mine to make. I'm not thrilled I won't be getting my degree on time and that I have a crap ton of loans to try and pay back, but I'm not heartbroken either. I've never been particularly happy at Willamette. I love the friends that I made there, I liked my job and I appreciate the opportunities that have come from going there (working at the Elsinore, getting involved with ceili dancing, the Lilly Retreat, getting to go to Ireland, etc), but as far as academics and most of my social experiences have gone, I've been pretty miserable. Hopefully this will be an opportunity to turn that around.
Which brings me to the question of what next? In the short term, I will be living at home until roughly the end of June. Then I'll be living with a friend here in Bend for a month or so. During this time I will be returning to my job at Target. The goal is to get out of Bend and (probably) move back to Salem by sometime between August to September. I can't leave sooner because I need to build up some savings again, start paying off my debts from my "grand tour" of Europe and get ready to pay off my student loans. I also need to be able to make rent and pay bills on my own. As of now, I can't really do any of this so I'll be around for a bit (at least for those of you in Bend).
The longer term plans are to get a job other than Target (something that pays better *fingers crossed*), be in Salem for a while (no idea how long at this point), get back into reading for fun (which has been sadly neglected over the last couple years), work on my photography (yay!), practice baking, do lots of dancing and recover from being completely burnt out on school. I'm hoping (okay, maybe more like dreaming) to be able to spend a week on the Isle of Man in a year or so. A little further out, I think I'd like to go back to school. Almost definitely not back to Willamette though. I don't think they can offer me what I need or want, unfortunately. I want to look into trying to take some classes in photography (not towards a career though), maybe one or two on architecture for my own edification, more history, and maybe some medievals studies and archeology. I have no idea where I can do this just yet, but seeing as I don't really want to be in school right now any ways it's a moot point. In and around this I want to travel more, most importantly back to Ireland, but to other places too. I want to go back to Japan, I want to spend more time exploring all the countries I visited on my "grand tour" and I'd like to see more of Asia and maybe some of Africa. The longest term goal is to get back to Ireland and hopefully figure out a way to live there.
So... yeah. That's what's going on right about now. Just thought you might like to know.
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