a dream deferred...the first part

my entire undergraduate career, I had amazing professors and wonderful courses. pretty much every one of these professors praised graduate school and the amazing thing that a Master's degree is. and every time they started going on about how important it is to have at least a 3.0 GPA to get into the best schools and get the good assistantships, I stopped listening.

I did my Bachelor's in 3 years because I had my life all planned out. I took huge course loads every semester so I could graduate, move down south, and start working in my dream career as a Child Life Specialist. but in February of my senior year everything changed.

the major I loved suddenly revealed to me that I would have to take 2 internships (2 semesters) in order to sit for the Child Life exam to be certified. I only had one semester left for my degree. Child Life internships are incredibly competitive. Toledo Children's is the only hospital who takes interns. I tried every route I knew of but I finally had to realize my dream job was out of my reach.

fast forward a couple months and everything I dreamed of was also lost along with my dream job- I was single, working an unpaid internship that wasn't what I wanted to do, and I had no plans for after graduation. as August approached and my degree was within reach I grew severely depressed. I was ashamed that I would have nothing to show for my time and money spent on college. my parents helped me pay for my schooling so thank God I was debt free, but that was all I had going for me.

a week after graduation I received 3 calls for interviews- 2 for preschool teaching positions, 1 for a restaurant manager position at PF Chang's. even as I felt myself pulled more towards the manager position, I knew I would be embarrassed if I didn't use my degree. so teaching it was. and what a perfect example of deferring my dreams the next two years would turn out to be.