Queen of the Bondo

(Hint: it's Temujin)

One of my greatest strengths is that I have a lot of interests. This comes in handy during pub quiz time, when all that separates me from the waffle-maker is Genghis Khan’s childhood name.

Unfortunately, this is also one of my greatest weaknesses. Now that it’s come time to think about pursuing some serious continuing education or — gads — entering another career field entirely, I find that there are a dizzying array of options.

I recently made a trip to Chicago to visit my friend Mark, a 23-year-old grad student at SAIC. As Mark sat on a couch that he’d dragged out of the garbage, eating a bowl of generic cocoa puffs, I agonized over the sheer number of life choices I could make. After about ten minutes Mark stormed over to his closet in a fit of pique, grabbed a Santa hat, and said, “we’re going to write down all of your options and you’re going to PICK ONE OUT OF THIS HAT.”

I picked one. Then I picked another. “Best out of three,” I said.

In the end we came up with a manageable list of options, which fell into the following categories:

• Digital Libraries and Electronic Records Management
• M.A. in English and TESL certification
• Heritage Preservation, Heritage Tourism, and Public History
• M.A. and Ph.D. in Folklore

All of these options build on education and experience that I already have, but are precariously academic. I think the top two are the most practical options (I keep hearing that there’s demand for postsecondary teachers of English, which makes me look like a douchebag because I spent a lot of time trying to talk one of our interns at the WRHS out of doing an M.A. in English).

So, over the next few months, I’m going to scrutinize, investigate, and weigh the benefits of specific academic programs in each of the above. This is something I wish I would’ve taken more seriously when I was applying to library school (I just picked Kent State because it was cheap.) Any and all suggestions are welcome!