{"id":67,"date":"2011-04-01T15:21:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T15:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldblogs.ups.edu\/psychology\/?p=67"},"modified":"2011-04-01T15:21:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T15:21:49","slug":"one-step-at-a-time-i-hate-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/2011\/04\/01\/one-step-at-a-time-i-hate-that\/","title":{"rendered":"One Step at a Time (I Hate That)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesse Northrup, current senior (class of ’11), Tacoma, WA (for now…)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what is more frightening: having post-grad options or not having them.\u00a0 I know that sounds odd.\u00a0 Why wouldn\u2019t I want to have a choice?\u00a0 But all of a sudden there is so much pressure to make the right one; for me, for my career, and yet no one is actually able to give me convincing advice one way or another.\u00a0 It\u2019s all my decision and my reasoning, which is perfectly fine, but when I as a kid, I always thought being an adult meant having the right answer.\u00a0 Apparently being an adult means playing the \u201cwait and see\u201d game.<\/p>\n

I started putting logs in the fire last semester, as I decided I\u2019d rather have too many choices than none at all.\u00a0 It was filled with GRE preparation, personal statement writing, and overall anxiety.\u00a0 The application process is one that brings about so much hope, worry, excitement, and self-doubt.\u00a0 I hate to say it, but I don\u2019t think any of us will ever get over this. Despite that, applications went out religious ethics programs, which as a religion and psychology double major, is a wonderful combination of the two. While I sat and waited, I decided to look for internships and other options than graduate school.\u00a0 If I\u2019m going to take time away from school, it needs to be productive right?<\/p>\n

So I applied for a paid research assistantship with The Hasting Center in Garrison, New York.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bioethical research firm and would give me the opportunity for an exponential amount of exposure to experts and topics within the field. It\u2019s a two year position and I think it appeals to me because I would be able to really bunker down and discover my ethical passions, to make sure that this is the area I want to spend my academic life in.\u00a0 Religious ethics basically leads to PhD work and then teaching (there are exceptions), so I need to be prepared and excited for what that entails.\u00a0 I\u2019m waiting to hear back on this particular position and incessantly check my e-mail.\u00a0 You know; that game again.<\/p>\n

When March rolled around, decisions from schools came flooding in.\u00a0 Needless to say, it was dramatic and I felt like a nervous wreck.\u00a0 My top choice is with a Masters program at Florida State University.\u00a0 They have fantastic faculty with a broad range of specialties: bioethics, just-war theory, comparative religious ethics, gender issues etc.\u00a0 Over spring break FSU paid to fly me down so I could explore the department first hand.\u00a0 Everyone was friendly, helpful, and it just felt right to me, despite being in Tallahassee.\u00a0 Going from moderate Minnesota, to liberal Washington, to generally conservative Florida pan-handle seems a bit difficult to me.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see.\u00a0 As a newly developed program at a large research institution, FSU is able to provide a strong springboard for my career, both in terms of connections and skills.\u00a0 Part of my financial aid includes a teaching assistantship in which I\u2019d TA for the first year, but help design a syllabus and teach a course for the second. It sounds amazing and I know I\u2019d benefit, especially since actual teaching isn\u2019t usually offered until you\u2019re a doctorate student.<\/p>\n

So it goes one step at a time (though all I want to do is leap).\u00a0 I can\u2019t accept FSU\u2019s offer until I hear from the The Hastings Center.\u00a0 Do I know which position I\u2019d rather take? Not in the least.\u00a0 If I were given the wonderful problem of having both options, I\u2019m afraid the decision would be a big to-do. But either way, I won\u2019t complain. Senior year turned into one big waiting game and in the words of my father, \u201cget used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse Northrup, current senior (class of ’11), Tacoma, WA (for now…) I\u2019m not sure what is more frightening: having post-grad options or not having them.\u00a0 I know that sounds odd.\u00a0 Why wouldn\u2019t I want to have a choice?\u00a0 But all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jesse-n"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}