Prologue: The Path Less Travelled

If someone had told me a year ago that after college I would be headed on a global adventure around the world to earn an M.A. in International Relations, I probably would have asked what kind of pills they were on and how many they had taken.  Indeed, a year ago I was nervously anticipating the various obstacles faced during one’s senior year in college: the GRE, graduate school applications, etc.  I didn’t know where I would end up in grad school, but I knew I was going to get my PhD in English from one of the various accredited universities to which I was applying.

Nervous as I was, I figured I pretty much had it in the bag: sky-high GPA, membership in two separate honors fraternities, a position as a consultant at the Writing Center.  I had presented a paper at Oxford University in England (yes, THE Oxford), had stellar recommendations, and basically was your all-around, hard-working whiz kid.  I was preparing to set out on the path to great and wonderful things via a well-earned doctorate in English.

As the months passed and I received rejection after rejection from most of my English grad programs, I began to see a roadblock transpire in front of me.  After four years of toil, sweat, and tears, the path to my dreams had been closed to me.  I was crushed.  Nowhere among the visions of my future had I, or anyone else I knew, pictured this happening.  My situation seemed hopeless.

At this point in the story, I recall an old quote: "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."  Indeed, my plans, as it turned out, were not the ones intended for me.  But my situation was far from hopeless.  Luck had it that my mother's coworker made an offhand remark about a Master's program where people travel to five different countries for 11 months while earning their degree.  We looked into it and discovered that they had such a program through Webster University where you earn your Master's in International Relations.  Having always been a fan of travel, new cultures, and international politics and law, I decided to apply, although I had very little hope of actually being accepted.  I couldn't even get accepted into an English program, who would accept me for I.R.?

Webster, apparently.  One day, as I was preparing to head back to Truman after visiting my family back home, I received a call from Thuy, one of the coordinators of the program.  She called in person to congratulate me on being accepted into the Global I.R. program.  I was beyond shocked.  'Is this really happening?? Do I really get to travel the world and earn a Master's??' (a Master's which, by the way, is probably a bit more useful than one in English given our current economy).  Well, the answer is 'yes' to both of those questions.  I am currently sitting at an airport in Detroit, Michigan awaiting a flight to the Netherlands, whereupon I will embark on the biggest adventure I have yet dared to undertake.  I hope you continue to follow along with me as I learn, make mistakes, and experience some of the most amazing things I could only ever dream of.

P.S.  I would like to thank and dedicate this blog to my Mutti, without whom I would never even had known about this program.  Because of her, I am a strong, independent traveller, ready to take on the world and follow my dreams.  Thanks, MOM (and be careful)!!