A new revelation...

One of my favorite movies of all time is Office Space. There's this one scene I love where the main character, Peter, decides that he's done. One of my favorite quotations from the movie is when Peter says, "I did nothing today, and it was all I dreamed it could be."

I have this theory that in life we all experience revelations of the same sort as Peter's. Granted, the revelations we encounter are normally followed by some sort of action instead of inaction, but you get the idea. A couple of nights ago I had a revelation of the same sort as Peter's. I decided that after I get my Master's degree, I am DONE. Done with school, done with term papers, done with fighting so darned hard for something I'm not sure that I even want.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that I enjoy school much more than the average Joe. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I stumble across an "aha!" moment that leads me to viewing the world in a completely different way. I love teaching people things and learning things for myself. I love school so much that until a couple of nights ago, I was ready to give up another FOUR YEARS of my life to higher education. But I guess that's the amazing thing about a revelation: it causes you to change your point of view. In my case, I changed the way I think about school.

You see, I initially thought that I wanted a law degree. However, I've come to realize that if all I want to do is help people, I don't need a law degree to alert people that "Yes! Andrea is indeed qualified to help people because she has a J.D." I also went through a period of time thinking that I might want a doctoral degree, but then came to the very rude realization that if I do indeed want to HELP people, a PhD is probably not the way to go. I would effectively be shutting myself off from the "real world" (as we grad students like to call it) and sealing myself into an early tomb labeled "academia." Sounds dramatic, right? Well, I think it's supposed to be dramatic. Let's think about it this way: if every person that got a Master's degree went on to a PhD program, what would be the point? The system would become incestuous, only creating more professors. Nobody would really do anything. Change would never occur.

Now I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with being a professor. I'm just saying that it takes all kinds of people to make the world go 'round, and I think that I'm one of those other people; you know, the kind of people who decide to say "screw the system" and decide to get their hands dirty actually doing things. Helping people. Taking all those lovely theories and putting them to WORK. And that's what I want to do. Make the theories work. See what can happen when I take the ideas I've learned during my long tenure in school and see what happens when I try to do practical things with them.

Perhaps it sounds a bit idealistic, but I figure that the world probably needs a few idealists here and there. Perhaps it will be a long, hard road, but maybe I can create some HOPE. Spread a little LOVE around. That's all I want in this world.

So I've devised a little plan with which I can start the process of doing something with my life instead of sitting back and expecting school to take me there. Here is the plan:
1) This summer, I'll take a little road trip across the southern half of the United States. I'll take pictures, meet people, write a memoir of sorts. At the same time, I'll be scoping out areas I'd possibly like to live in, community colleges I could see myself working for, and churches that I could see myself contributing to.
2) This next school year, I will be DEDICATED and finish my freaking degree! I will get out of my master's program by the end of next year, thesis and all. I will not be one of those people who hangs around in school forever, never really finishing, never letting go.
3) I'll also apply for the Teach for America program. They work with high schools across the country to help kids who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Plus, if I work for them I can get some of my student loan debt forgiven.
http://www.teachforamerica.org/
4) I'm going to start checking out different relief organizations. I'm specifically leaning toward Food For the Hungry, a Christian organization that focuses on filling physical needs instead of evangelizing. People get to search their hearts and ask their own questions rather than having the answers forced on them.
http://www.fh.org/

I think this sounds like a pretty good start. I'm exicted to see what the rest of my life will look like with the lens of this new revelation firmly placed over the eyes of my worldview. So what do you think? Are there any areas of your life that you've begun to look at differently? How has it changed your approach to life?