NEW Adventure

It's 10:00 AM on Thursday morning and I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop off campus--The Goat. Gregory Alan Isakov's sweet voice is flowing through my little ear drums and my hands are hugging my cup of coffee. I've yawned at least twenty times in the past hour and a half. The sun is shining and I feel like Fall is on its way. My class this morning got cancelled, so I don't have class until 1:00 PM. We're in our second week of classes and next week will be our first FULL week. I'm mentally exhausted. My brain has just been chugging along nonstop.

This semester my course load is absolutely insane and my Spanish advisor/professors have all told me that I should change it. I have four Spanish classes (three of which are literature), a Spanish history class (but in English), and then a methods course. This schedule needs to remain because I am finally going to graduate...THIS DECEMBER (as opposed to next December). In order to do so, though, I once again changed my major...in my fifth year of school. Like, who does that? I dropped Elementary Education and Spanish Education for a Liberal Arts degree in Spanish with a topical minor in Intercultural Communications. Some of you may be gasping or pissed at me for not teaching. I don't want to continue convincing myself that my heart is in teaching when I know that it isn't. I was in a high-school the other day for my methods course and I just felt so claustrophobic and trapped. That feeling shouldn't exist.

"So, Allie. What the f*** are you doing? What can you even do with your new degree program?" Well, everyone. That's a great question. UW-Eau Claire doesn't actually offer a minor in Intercultural Communications, so I literally created it for myself based on classes I have already taken. I don't know what I'm doing. I never really do. I am okay just going with wherever the wind takes me. I know that God's plan for me is greater than my own. I do know that my heart is in Student Affairs and I will hopefully attend graduate school in the Fall to get my masters. Or maybe even my P.hD in Spanish. I don't know. But I do know that I already have a job lined up for after I graduate. In fact, I start it next week! Which is the next exciting part of my life adventure.

Friends: I will not be continuing as an RA this year. It's bittersweet because I really enjoy my 11 coworkers and the thirty residents I directly work with. Unknowingly, they have helped me with my adjustment back from Juneau. They helped remind me of all the reasons why I do love Eau Claire. The reason I am leaving the RA position is because I was offered a position in the Think Tank, which is one of the offices in housing. Essentially, I will be supervising 10-15 individuals and working with professional staff to ensure that programming can occur efficiently and effectively. Normally, this is a professional position, but with budget cuts in the state and people moving up in the field, it has turned into a graduate student position. However, because of the timing, no graduate student has been found, which leaves me. CRAZY. I am moving out of Oak Ridge, which has been my home since 2011, and into a different residence hall. I'll have my own apartment and several other benefits. This opportunity is incredible and will serve as yet another springboard for my career in higher education. This opportunity presented itself just a few days after I changed my major. I was in a dry season in regards to my relationship with God (which is another story) but the timing of this and the greatness of it is affirming of His existence.

I got a tattoo when I was back in Juneau (which I conveniently forgot to write about in my recent posts). I was also asked to be a bridesmaid in the wedding of my childhood best friend and could not be more exciting or honored. I feel like good things are finally happening to me after all the shit I've gone through over the past year or two. Life is turning around. Yeah, those shitty things are still out there but there is a lot of good happening. So friends, if life is just taking a big dump on you, it will turn around at some point. Try to keep a positive attitude and keep smiling your beautiful smiles, no matter how much you may be hurting on the inside. Karma has a way of coming back around to you.

XOXO
-A