Stop. Breathe. Be.

No one ever told me that the hardest part of college, was finishing it.  My classmates and I have started the seemingly never-ending list of "lasts."  It puts a very sentimental angle on life and really makes one think about what is going to be the next "first." This, of course, brings a whole ton of other feelings to the surface as those "firsts" are just as scary as the "lasts" if not a little bit scarier because of all the unknown.  

One morning, my professor of "Professional Development," a seemingly (up to this semester) pointless class that was not going to be overly helpful, and asked the question.

Where will you be locating after you graduate??

and why? 

We then started discussing parts of the country we want to work in and areas of practice we're interested in pursuing and a wave of panic rolled through me.  I hadn't thought about it yet.  Well, that's kind of a lie, I had thought about it, but I quickly pushed it aside as soon as it popped into my brain. So that morning when my professor stood at the front of the room and asked that scary scary question, I was stuck. I had no clue where I wanted to work, I had no clue what my plan was for interviewing. In reality it's a wonderful opportunity to have nothing holding me back, to be able to go anywhere I want to go.  This also creates so many options I don't even know where to start. 

So, I tried a few different things.

I made a list of possible cities I'd like to explore... but that just basically was a list of the major cities of almost every state in the US. 

I asked friends where I should go, which was enthusiastically responded to with whatever city they are currently living in. 

• J said stay here in WNY 
• E said DC, DC, DC!!!! ... oh, and I might be going somewhere else... but CH will still be here.
• M suggested Ohio... (Ohio? really? probably not, no offense, darling.)
• C recommended Boston, which I have considered, and may still consider. 

I asked the ladies at my knitting group in Ithaca who suggested: 

• Portland, Oregon
• Twin Cities (Apparently there are excellent yarn stores in the Twin Cities region)
• San Francisco (I think?)
• Chicago (after I mentioned it as a possibility)

... and after all that, I'm still at square one. Trying to decide which way to go, when in reality, I don't have 2 or 3 paths ahead of me of which I have to choose one.  I have a field.  I can go through it or around it or over it in any way I choose. And the best part? I can change my mind.  I can decide tomorrow.  I can decide next week.  I can even decide in 6 months.