Well it's been about a year since I returned home from Nepal, armed with passion and knowledge for changing lives. I thought it was more than appropriate I take the chance to reflect on what this last year, and summer has been like, in contrast to the incredibly challenging and wonderful time I spent abroad a little over a year ago. I've always known that blessings almost always come in disguise and this summer was no different. Early into the spring semester of my junior year, I began to think about some of the possibilities for the summer of 2016, and what awesome experience I would take on next. However, those "big" dreams became very much hometown for me, when I accepted a job with Lincoln Parks and Rec, working at summer day camp. To say I was slightly disappointed that for the first summer of my undergraduate I wasn't directly working or doing something related to my future goals, was an understatement. However, when I was offered a position working at a law firm part-time, things began to look up. As the summer went on, my family suffered a terrible loss. My uncle, who had been suffering from pancreatic cancer for 6 months, passed-away. This put a whole new spin on the reality that is human life, and even mores so revealed yet another blessing; had I been in Nepal, or in an intensive program, I wouldn't have been able to come home, mourn and laugh and celebrate what an amazing gift life is with my family. In hindsight, choosing to live the hometown life for the summer was the best possible decision I could have made, given the unforeseen circumstances that life is filled with.
Being in Nepal last summer, allowed me to expand my horizons as far as looking into other careers and learning what my real interests are. If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked this summer, what I'll be doing after graduation, I could probably pay off my student loans. But in all seriousness, I am undecided. I will graduate in May of 2017 with a degree in Biology, and those are my only future plans right now. Do I have some ideas? Of course, but in the 21 years I've been granted on this earth, I've learned that the hardest and most rewarding decisions take time. Will it be medical school? Not for now, maybe one day, but not in the near future. Law school? A more likely graduate school choice at this time. But in all reality I more than likely won't head to graduate school right after graduation. I want to explore and embark on this great adventure that I've been given, and as soon as I decide on a destination, I'll let everyone know. Until then, I continue to let the spirit of Nepal fill my everyday life, and the person I continue to grow into.