Since I'm pretty sure that very few people are actually reading my blog on a regular basis (and at least two of those that are know me outside of skydiving), I'm going to go ahead and post about what's on my mind even though it does not pertain to skydiving in any way.
I am absolutely shocked tonight, but in a really good way.
A series of personal/family/financial issues have led me to consider taking a year off from school after graduation next spring. I went to one of my faculty members a little over a week ago to discuss this change of plans with him. When he realized that a major part of the reason I was considering taking a year off was my current financial struggles (despite the good news I posted about my mom's job a few weeks ago, not everything has been resolved), he actually offered to pay for some of my graduate school applications out of his own pocket. Today another professor asked to speak with me in his office. He had also heard that I am leaning towards taking a year off and wanted to let me know that if I needed assistance, the mathematics/physics department faculty had agreed that they would be willing to use departmental funds to help me out if it would make the difference between me going to or not going to graduate school. Seriously? Departmental funds? Aren't those supposed to go to things like... oh, I don't know... departmental expenses? When not even my own family is willing to step up to help me, I really never expected such kindness from my faculty. At most I thought they would say something along the lines of "Sorry to hear about that.... But good luck in life!" Instead they're going above and beyond, all to help a student they've only known for a couple years and who will be leaving them in just a few months' time. So I'm slightly overwhelmed and shocked by all this generosity. I mean, that sort of thing just doesn't happen, right?
At this point I don't know what I will be doing next year. I missed a major deadline related to my graduate school applications, so my options of schools to apply to are already limited. I still think I would rather take a year off and start with a fresh opportunity to apply wherever I'd like than settle for going to a school I really have no interest in attending. No matter what, though, I'm not going to take for granted the amazing professors I have had for the past four years. Even though this college was far from my top choice when I was just out of high school, I could not have picked a more amazing bunch of people to spend my undergraduate years with.
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2 comments:
Aww. Congrats. As for the decision though, my recommendation is to wait, since you're not sure if you want to go to the schools you're left with. However, you could always go visit them and see if there are hidden treasures there too!!
Wow, that is generous of them. I know my school would never offer me anything like that. Very cool!.
I'm sure I've told you this already, but I'm taking a year off too. Do you think you're still going to apply in physics? I'm undecided personally, maybe engineering? I should probably figure that out at some point.
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