Future

A few years ago (well...maybe more than a few) I headed off to college to a small, liberal arts school in Central PA.  I enrolled as a Communications major to gain a degree to go into radio.  I wanted to be a DJ.  Which was just one of several career aspirations I had growing up.  I had also wanted to be veterinarian and a singer.  I realized I'm not a math or science person, so the veterinarian quickly fell by the wayside.  I then wanted to be a singer (country), but then I realized I would have to go to Nashville all by myself and I didn't think I could do it.  So, I figured the next best thing would be to work in radio.  Logical, right?

Well, I hit college and started taking classes in Communications.  Then I realized I wasn't all that into the radio thing and I started hearing it is a really hard field to work in.  So, I switched concentrations to Public Relations and graduated with a major in Communications, concentrating in Public Relations.  Oh, and a minor in History.  Which is a passion, but the only thing I could think to do with it was teach and I just wasn't into that.

After graduating, I decided I wanted to go back to school to obtain a MA in history.  I was working full-time in non-profit fund raising, but I really just enjoyed my history classes.  Then I got engaged and money was diverted. No more school.  Then in 2005, I went back to school in the hopes of finishing the degree I started at a new school, as we moved to Central PA from Southern NJ.  I took one class and again withdrew for monetary reasons.  Ugh.

Then in Jan. 2008, I applied to a new school and entered into another program.  This time for American Studies and 2 years later I graduated with an MA.  Yea!  I decided on this journey that I no longer wanted to work in fund raising.  I wanted to work in a museum setting.  So, I worked my tail off (while working full-time) and graduated in December '09 with a 3.93 GPA (yup, bragging a bit).

So, today, I met with several people at the State Archives to see if I could start volunteering there.  I had a great meeting with them and got a tour of the archives.  And it looks like next week, I AM VOLUNTEERING AT THE ARCHIVES!!  There is a group of interns coming in next week for their summer internships and I'll be treated like an intern more than a volunteer, which is nice.  This means I'll be doing more than just photocopying and filing.  I'll get to work with documents, answer inquiries, make documents that will be put on the website.  I am sooo excited!  This is what I've been wanting to do for the last several years and all I kept saying in our discussion this morning was, "that sounds fun."  It seemed they do not often get people "interviewing" who responds to their suggested projects as fun.  :-)  But, for the first time in a long time, I think I will enjoy getting up in the morning to go to "work."