2008 Plans and Prospects

The more I think about it, the more I've realized that 2008 is going to be a monumental year for me. I'll be done with my undergraduate studies at Lehigh, and sometime this summer, I'll be starting my first career. I did receive a job offer from NSA, but because it wasn't a sure thing that the job would be there for me once I finished the security clearance process, I accepted the offer from HPTi. I haven't burned my bridges with NSA, and it's possible I could be working with NSA through HPTi, so I'm confident that I made the right decision. I don't know exactly where I'll be when I begin my job (hopefully in the near future, HPTi will be sending me advice on where to move), but I'll definitely be in the DC area, and that's really exciting to me. Here are some of the other expectations I have for the year:

- The beginning and the end of my honors thesis - I'm still behind in the process of writing my honors thesis proposal, but I have a set-in-stone deadline for when that needs to be ready (January 22nd), and I've put aside time in my schedule to work on just the thesis. It's certainly a larger and more ambitious project than I've ever tackled, and I'm curious as to whether I'm up to the challenge. So far, I've successfully avoided doing any serious work on it, meaning this semester is the do-or-die moment. While a significant part of my being cringes at the idea of research and tens of pages of writing, I'm betting on the better part of my being, the part that enjoys intellectual struggle and that committed to this project in the first place, will win out in the end.

- Voting for a presidential candidate who doesn't require me to compromise my values - I haven't discussed politics on this blog in a long time, so permit me this one excursion into that topic: As near as I can tell right now, Barack Obama is the real deal. For me, foreign policy is where the US needs to desperately get back on track, and Obama's nuanced and capable understanding in that realm is exactly what our country needs right now. Furthermore, if he lives up to his promises of crossing party lines, he'll be able to demonstrate true leadership and bring about long overdue changes in this country (healthcare, tax system, fiscal responsibility, etc.). With everyone's assumption up until a few weeks ago that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, it looked like I would once again have to vote for the lesser of two evils in the general election, but if Obama's victory in Iowa in any indication, I may get to vote for a candidate who I fully support. Ultimately, once he gets into office, he may fall short of the hype, but if he lives up to any part of it, he'll be one of the best presidents this country has ever seen.

- The start of "adult" life - When I move to the DC area, I'll finally see the complications of day-to-day life from which I've been mostly sheltered: insurance, making my own meals, paying rent, making friends outside of school/the workplace, etc. And unlike all the leisure time I have now, I'll be limited on weekdays to the 4 or 5 hours that will remain between dinner and bed. It's a bit of a bummer, but just as with the transition from high school to college, it's another fresh start, another chance to try different things, another opportunity to redefine myself. When you're with the same group of people from year to year, you create expectations for yourself, and if you start behaving outside of those expectations, those people will think that something's wrong when, in fact, you're just trying to explore other aspects of your personality or trying to pursue other interests. While I'll miss all my college and home friends immensely, I learned when I went abroad this past summer that there is a liberating quality to leaving everything you know behind. Don't get me wrong; I haven't been suppressing the true "me" or anything like that. But I haven't, for example, been able to get out to clubs and try out that whole other side of life that's had me curious for some time but that I haven't had a chance to investigate yet. One's friends, for better or for worse, can restrain you from doing things that they would perceive as "out of character" for you. In my case, anyway, I've been nervous that, after I try something "out of character", my friends will perceive me more negatively for it. So getting away from my friends may temporarily free me of that restraint. But of course, once I've finished exploring, I may find that I had already found the right way of life all along and I'll miss my old friends all the more for that realization.

- Continuing to go slightly outside my comfort zone - Other than the example I just gave, there are other ways I plan on taking some risks. I've committed to performing in an improv show in Elizabethtown, PA with one of Lehigh's improv groups. It'll take place in March, and unlike the shows at Lehigh, we'll be performing along with professional and semi-professional groups (at least that's my understanding). So the pressure will be on like never before, except that the crowd will be mostly unfamiliar to us. And as I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm meeting more women in the hopes of connecting with one of them and having an actual long-term relationship. It might be too little, too late at Lehigh, but there's no reason why I can't be successful in DC, once I find out how the singles scene there works. It's unfortunate that I've only now found a group of people with whom I feel comfortable partying/meeting new people and that I'll have to start again from square one in DC, but as I already discussed, that's not all bad.

I guess that covers the major changes I'm expecting this year. They're not resolutions, per se, but I'm actually fairly satisfied with how I'm living my life at the moment, other than all the procrastination I've been doing in my academics. So my main goal for the semester will be to work on that. Otherwise, as long as I keep pushing the limits of my comfort zone, I think I'll be all right. Happy New Year, and good luck in all your pursuits this semester.