Dreaming

The past month I have been doing everything I can to maintain prospective and manage my expectations.  With all of that, comes pondering about what I want to do with my life once I graduate from PT school.  Today I finished one HUGE final and though I still have three more, I am doing myself a favor by spending some time writing and breathing (both essential to maintaining function).

So, back to pondering life…  Last night, I had a great conversation with a friend who I haven’t talked to in a long time.  The conversation was blessed with his marvelous wisdom and grace and really got me thinking…

What do I want to do after graduate school?

After we caught up a bit, I launched into a long explanation of how insane these past few weeks have been, when out of nowhere he asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated.  I promptly answered him by giving a whole list of things I did not want to do (ie. studying, write reflection papers, group projects/papers, making pointless charts of the endocrine system when your project has nothing to do with diabetes, etc.).  After I went on for roughly five minutes (likely, at least ten), he reminded me, ever so gently, that he hadn’t asked what I DIDNT want to do, but WANTED to do.

And I drew a blank…  What do I want to do?! 

What do I want to do when my time is not demanded by this inanimate object referred to as grad school?  The title of my blog is Dare to Dream; a slogan I have been trying to embrace for years.  This blogspot is supposed to be a place where I can dare to dream, push the envelope and carve out my own place in this world. 

But I still have not answered the question…

What do I want to do after I graduate?  I am still seriously considering working abroad for a few years as a physiotherapist and would love to be in London, Scotland or Australia (basically anywhere that speaks a similar language as me).  But why was I so quick to come up with all the things I didn’t want to be doing anymore?  Why is that list so much longer and readily available?  Does having an open and blank canvas give me anxiety instead of inspiration?   Is it really that much easier to criticize my current situation than dream of what’s to come?

So, with all those questions still unanswered, I am going to try and come up with one thing I WANT to do at the end of this week (luckily, it involves flying to Chicago) when I am done with finals.  And then, I will pick another thing I WANT to do at the end of the month before we start another semester of school.  We will just see where these baby-steps take me J