Okay, so this has turned out to be a three-post day, each more significant than the last…. This one is a humdinger, but considering the mixed reception I’ve received thus far, I feel the need to preface it with what I haven’t verbalized to anyone other than my husband.

Friends and avid readers will recall that two months ago I had decided to pursue art as a career and spurn geology completely. That lasted for about a month… before I started having second thoughts. It didn’t take long for me to miss geology. Two weeks ago, something happened that brought back all the things I had loved about geology: the mineralogy, the petrology, the crystallography even. I just started thinking about the things I liked. It was hard not to be negative, having received five grad school rejections this past spring, and to overlook the positive things that had happened, and even the upturn in my GPA right at the end. I had told people of the mediocre grades I received in most science classes, and it’s true: I am better at other things, but I’m interested in geology. In other words, I’m willing to give it another try and work harder this time.

So two weeks ago I started thinking about trying geology again, specifically applying to UNC Chapel Hill again, because the adviser there felt that it had been a fluke year and any other year I would’ve been accepted. I wasn’t going to tell anyone that I was applying, except a select few… not even you, A-chan. I didn’t want to announce it and then get rejected again, just like this year. Art is and will always be an undeniable part of me, and I hope to continue drawing as I have been, and creating things online. I simply don’t see art being enough of a challenge or enough of an intellectual stimulant to keep me going in the long run. It would have been fun for a few years, but thinking about it practically, I don’t really want to run my own graphic design studio, or live in the Bay Area so I can work for one. I still want to teach geology. I still want to study. I still want to play with moon rocks, hopefully.

So I’ve been praying. A lot. When I got rejected, it took a while but I got to a point where I realized that God wanted me here for the time being. Then I got my happy job and was given the opportunity to start paying off debts and improving our lifestyle (read: more fast food. ^_^;; Only slightly kidding.) And I’ve been prayerfully watching and waiting in my holding pattern, content with what I was given and waiting for the next “sign”, I guess. The art thing was an inspiration, it was good to let myself consider it as a career, and it got me drawing again, which I haven’t fallen away from in the past two months. It did great things for my insides. But still, I was waiting. I realized I still wanted to pursue geology, and I was still waiting.

With that long explanation in mind, I can now say that today my patience was rewarded. My news is that today I was accepted into the master’s program in geology at Washington State University. I’ve deferred until fall 2003, so we’ll see what the next twelve months bring, and I think I’ll still apply at UNC (better school) this winter. Huzzah.