You know what I just realized?

I don't have to get a job or go to grad school in engineering after Olin. (Yeah, yeah. "What took her so long?") I can find a way to do anything I want, including becoming an art student, which is what I dreamed of studying when I was applying to college, and still secretly really want to try (I was going to study abroad in Italy this year, but didn't have the language prerequisites to take the art classes I would be going for in the first place). So I could...

  • Work for a design firm
  • Grad school in engineering
  • Go to art school, studying drawing, graphic design, digital media & interface design
  • Volunteer overseas (Peace Corps or something)
  • Teach (for America, or otherwise; abroad, even)
  • Grad school in education
  • Travel the country interviewing teachers and writing a book on engineering education
  • Anything Else In The World

Some of these will obviously be harder than others; some I'd have to work full-time and study evenings, some I'll have to live in lousy apartments and eat ramen out of my car, but that's fine; I don't need much to live, and in a pinch I can always tutor kids in math. I'm not trapped, and I'm nowhere near screwed, and I can become an art student or whatever I want to be. I can. It's okay. And not a waste of my life at all. I'm not obligated to become an engineer and a professor of engineering straight off the bat. Or ever. And I'm grown now and don't have to ask my parents' permission.

GLORY. I FEEL FREE.