Quo
It's hard to believe how quickly things are winding down. I had my last "real" class today for German. All I have left is my Czech lesson tomorrow afternoon, the last German test Friday morning, and a makeup Czech lesson to be scheduled for sometime next week. And that's all she wrote. My undergraduate career will be complete and I'll just have about three weeks to wait around for graduation, then it's off to the real world.
Well, not so fast. I don't know that I'll be hitting the real world quite yet. Or ever, for that matter. I still don't have any form of gainful employment awaiting me once I finish my tour of duty in the Interlibrary Loan Department. So, barring an unforeseen development, come summertime I'll be sitting in my parents' living room back in California, searching for a job and just slumming around in the interim. It's not glorious, and I think once I'm home and realize how much I'd rather not be sitting on my parents' couch watching TechTV with my dad or helping him take care of my two grandparents who now live with us, I'll have quite the incentive and motivation to find some sort of job that will at least get me out of the house a few hours each day. And therein lies the rub.
I still have no desire to actually work, nor can I envision a job that realistically I'll land for the next year or two to occupy myself until I enter the great abyss known as history graduate school. Frankly, since I have zilch relevant career experience (packing books in the library evidently does not qualify one for a swank research and writing job) and no advanced degree (yet), my pickins is pretty slim.
On the sunny side, I chatted with Joe today, and I think we've worked out a nice network of contingency plans for the next year or two. Here's the two-minute explanation, as posed in the form of a standardized test logic problem:
Condition (1): Joe must get the hell out of Egypt as soon as possible (i.e., once the lease on his new apartment expires on 1 August)
Condition (2): Despite his scholarly (in)inertia, Scott must find some form of gainful employment that will allow his to either a) accrue savings to apply during graduate school or b) get him the hell out of Dodge and to the Czech Republic, where he can at least get some intellectual stimulation (and quality Czech beer on the cheap)
Scenario (1): Joe leaves Egypt and moves to Prague in early August, relying on a savings of U.S. $2,000 with which he will support himself for a month or two while seeking employment, preferably with an English-language newspaper or magazine
Subscenario (1a): If Joe can't find work in journalism, he would accept alternative employment (e.g. proofreading or editing work outside the realm of journalism) to earn the crowns needed to subsist in Prague until he can find said job
Subscenario (1b): If Joe can't find any manner of employment and instead continues to deplete his savings after approximately two months Joe will pack his bags for Chicagoland, where he can live with his aunt and uncle while he figures out a new plan
Scenario (2): Scott continues to search for a tolerable (i.e. no manual labor involved) job in the United States, preferably in or near Chicago
Subscenario (2a): If Scott fails to find said employment prior to the end of June, he will fly back to California as planned, thus biding his time on his parents' sofa
Subscenario (2b): While Scott continues to search for bearable work, he will accept otherwise unacceptable employment as a means of accruing savings in the interim, and in the meantime will also reapply for a Fulbright Scholarship to fund a year of party (er, study) in the Czech Republic for 2004-2005
Contingency (1): If Joe secures adequate employment in the Czech Republic, he will stay in Prague at least one year, and would stay a second year if Scott either (a) wins a fellowship, in-sha-a'Czech Fulbright Commission or (b) saves enough money to move to Prague regardless
Contingency (2): If Scott fails to find suitable work in the United States but comes up with enough savings, once Joe is settled in Prague he will relocate there and mooch off Joe until he either (a) finds sufficient work in the Czech Republic or (b) wears out his welcome in Joe's flat
Contingency (3): If Scott gets into graduate school for 2004-2005 and receives funding that he cannot defer, Scott goes to graduate school and Joe comes up with a new plan
Contingency (4): f(x) = -3y + 4z - 7
So, in a nutshell, Joe and I are still playing it by ear and still hoping to both end up living in Prague for a year or so. I reckon this all sounds much more unsettled and unformulated than I make it out to be, but it's a far more concrete plan than I think either of us had before. So, that's good. It could all easily get blown to hell if something comes up in the meantime, but the beauty of this plan, the genius of its architecture, is its built-in failsafe contingency, the condition that if something changes, we come up with a new plan. Brilliant, ain't it?
"I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off of people."
Well, not so fast. I don't know that I'll be hitting the real world quite yet. Or ever, for that matter. I still don't have any form of gainful employment awaiting me once I finish my tour of duty in the Interlibrary Loan Department. So, barring an unforeseen development, come summertime I'll be sitting in my parents' living room back in California, searching for a job and just slumming around in the interim. It's not glorious, and I think once I'm home and realize how much I'd rather not be sitting on my parents' couch watching TechTV with my dad or helping him take care of my two grandparents who now live with us, I'll have quite the incentive and motivation to find some sort of job that will at least get me out of the house a few hours each day. And therein lies the rub.
I still have no desire to actually work, nor can I envision a job that realistically I'll land for the next year or two to occupy myself until I enter the great abyss known as history graduate school. Frankly, since I have zilch relevant career experience (packing books in the library evidently does not qualify one for a swank research and writing job) and no advanced degree (yet), my pickins is pretty slim.
On the sunny side, I chatted with Joe today, and I think we've worked out a nice network of contingency plans for the next year or two. Here's the two-minute explanation, as posed in the form of a standardized test logic problem:
Condition (1): Joe must get the hell out of Egypt as soon as possible (i.e., once the lease on his new apartment expires on 1 August)
Condition (2): Despite his scholarly (in)inertia, Scott must find some form of gainful employment that will allow his to either a) accrue savings to apply during graduate school or b) get him the hell out of Dodge and to the Czech Republic, where he can at least get some intellectual stimulation (and quality Czech beer on the cheap)
Scenario (1): Joe leaves Egypt and moves to Prague in early August, relying on a savings of U.S. $2,000 with which he will support himself for a month or two while seeking employment, preferably with an English-language newspaper or magazine
Subscenario (1a): If Joe can't find work in journalism, he would accept alternative employment (e.g. proofreading or editing work outside the realm of journalism) to earn the crowns needed to subsist in Prague until he can find said job
Subscenario (1b): If Joe can't find any manner of employment and instead continues to deplete his savings after approximately two months Joe will pack his bags for Chicagoland, where he can live with his aunt and uncle while he figures out a new plan
Scenario (2): Scott continues to search for a tolerable (i.e. no manual labor involved) job in the United States, preferably in or near Chicago
Subscenario (2a): If Scott fails to find said employment prior to the end of June, he will fly back to California as planned, thus biding his time on his parents' sofa
Subscenario (2b): While Scott continues to search for bearable work, he will accept otherwise unacceptable employment as a means of accruing savings in the interim, and in the meantime will also reapply for a Fulbright Scholarship to fund a year of party (er, study) in the Czech Republic for 2004-2005
Contingency (1): If Joe secures adequate employment in the Czech Republic, he will stay in Prague at least one year, and would stay a second year if Scott either (a) wins a fellowship, in-sha-a'Czech Fulbright Commission or (b) saves enough money to move to Prague regardless
Contingency (2): If Scott fails to find suitable work in the United States but comes up with enough savings, once Joe is settled in Prague he will relocate there and mooch off Joe until he either (a) finds sufficient work in the Czech Republic or (b) wears out his welcome in Joe's flat
Contingency (3): If Scott gets into graduate school for 2004-2005 and receives funding that he cannot defer, Scott goes to graduate school and Joe comes up with a new plan
Contingency (4): f(x) = -3y + 4z - 7
So, in a nutshell, Joe and I are still playing it by ear and still hoping to both end up living in Prague for a year or so. I reckon this all sounds much more unsettled and unformulated than I make it out to be, but it's a far more concrete plan than I think either of us had before. So, that's good. It could all easily get blown to hell if something comes up in the meantime, but the beauty of this plan, the genius of its architecture, is its built-in failsafe contingency, the condition that if something changes, we come up with a new plan. Brilliant, ain't it?
"I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off of people."
posted by Alexander Dubcek | 00:31
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