Why have diverse interests?
Sep. 17th, 2005 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
songofjoy02Oh, I'm not going to answer that question! I'm asking it because I really don't understand. As I look at college catalogs and examine the options, I realize that I really am interested in more than one thing. I know people change majors and it looks like I'm a fickle idiot because I'm planning to go to nursing school. But the reality is not that I have suddenly decided that I don't want a degree in English, licensure as a teacher, or excellent preparation for the possibility of law school. No, indeed! I still would like to do those things. I'd still like to go to Bible school, in fact. I do realize that time may not be on the side of completing these academic endeavors. I also realize that God really may not desire me to do all these things. While I may be a lifelong learner, it doesn't seem particularly profitable--especially not financially--to be a career college student, which is what I would eventually become if I pursued all of these things.
Let's think through this...
Nursing school is bound to take about three years, although I'm hoping that it will only be two to two and a half.
Finishing a degree in English alone would require two years, and I think that would give me enough time to take some pre-education classes.
If I chose to go on to graduate school so that I could pursue licensure as a secondary English teacher, that would take an additional year or two, especially if I decided to get a master's degree in English itself--so that I would be qualified to teach it at the college level. Of course, a graduate degree in Education might make things take even longer...
By that point, one would hope that I would have completed whatever I thought would be necessary to prepare for law school, which should take about three years.
So then it would be time for Bible school--or would I be able to go to seminary by that point? I doubt I would be able to get a master's degree without taking preprequisite classes. Since Calvary Bible College is where I'd probably want to go, I'd have to go on the basis of their requirements. To be honest, my associate's degrees wouldn't get me very far there. By their standards, I'm probably a first-semester freshman still! The majority of the classes I took would not transfer, so I'd be stuck in their school for about four years before I could obtain a bachelor's degree. Then I would have another couple of years to complete a graduate degree if I so desired.
Now let's add this up...oh, wait: I forgot to mention counseling training that I want to receive. I am not especially interested in getting a degree in that subject, so perhaps the training would only take a year. Okay, now we're ready to add this up...
All right, people--we have about ten to fifteen years of education on this list. I am currently 22 years old, with 23 coming right around the corner (in about two months, now that I think about it). 23+15=38--and that's not taking into account the time that I would need to slow things down so that I could work enough to pay for all that schooling. Based upon these calculations, I must conclude that it would be very unrealistic to do all these things. Besides, since I can't seem to stick with school for very long at a time, I would probably take a lot longer. So...I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll continue to seek the Lord's direction. I feel pathetic for having failed to narrow down my interests even though I am almost 23, but I suppose that such is life.
Now for what I'm going to do tomorrow: It's a training day at a place about half an hour from here--where we'll be learning how to counsel women in crisis pregnancies.
Oh, did I mention crisis pregnancies? See, the truth is that, regardless of my academic interests, the focus of my interests really is on helping unwed mothers--or any women in crisis. So I guess my interests do have a filter of some sort, which is why nursing looks like the best option at the moment. But we shall see where else God leads...
Let's think through this...
Nursing school is bound to take about three years, although I'm hoping that it will only be two to two and a half.
Finishing a degree in English alone would require two years, and I think that would give me enough time to take some pre-education classes.
If I chose to go on to graduate school so that I could pursue licensure as a secondary English teacher, that would take an additional year or two, especially if I decided to get a master's degree in English itself--so that I would be qualified to teach it at the college level. Of course, a graduate degree in Education might make things take even longer...
By that point, one would hope that I would have completed whatever I thought would be necessary to prepare for law school, which should take about three years.
So then it would be time for Bible school--or would I be able to go to seminary by that point? I doubt I would be able to get a master's degree without taking preprequisite classes. Since Calvary Bible College is where I'd probably want to go, I'd have to go on the basis of their requirements. To be honest, my associate's degrees wouldn't get me very far there. By their standards, I'm probably a first-semester freshman still! The majority of the classes I took would not transfer, so I'd be stuck in their school for about four years before I could obtain a bachelor's degree. Then I would have another couple of years to complete a graduate degree if I so desired.
Now let's add this up...oh, wait: I forgot to mention counseling training that I want to receive. I am not especially interested in getting a degree in that subject, so perhaps the training would only take a year. Okay, now we're ready to add this up...
All right, people--we have about ten to fifteen years of education on this list. I am currently 22 years old, with 23 coming right around the corner (in about two months, now that I think about it). 23+15=38--and that's not taking into account the time that I would need to slow things down so that I could work enough to pay for all that schooling. Based upon these calculations, I must conclude that it would be very unrealistic to do all these things. Besides, since I can't seem to stick with school for very long at a time, I would probably take a lot longer. So...I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll continue to seek the Lord's direction. I feel pathetic for having failed to narrow down my interests even though I am almost 23, but I suppose that such is life.
Now for what I'm going to do tomorrow: It's a training day at a place about half an hour from here--where we'll be learning how to counsel women in crisis pregnancies.
Oh, did I mention crisis pregnancies? See, the truth is that, regardless of my academic interests, the focus of my interests really is on helping unwed mothers--or any women in crisis. So I guess my interests do have a filter of some sort, which is why nursing looks like the best option at the moment. But we shall see where else God leads...
