After I Graduate

Well, for those of you that are wondering, "What is Chris going to do after he graduates?" - I have a few thoughts on that.

I'm coming out of school with some debt because I took out a big loan to cover living expenses this year. It's a big loan to me, but in comparison to how much debt SOME people leave college with... it's not bad at all.

I will be graduating in mid May of 2006 (Cheers!)

After that, I will work my normal summer job at "Kamp Kaleidoscope" in Batavia, IL, which is basically a kids camp where I am paid to play fun games and go fun places with kids. It's a great job.

When summer is over, I will have a six month period of time where I won't know what to do. It will be from September until late December. I will either get a temporary job... or - some new thoughts JUST came up yesturday.

You see, ultimately, somewhere down the line in my life, I would like to end up teaching English in China. This semester at UIUC, I'm in the Wushu Kung Fu Club. I love Kung Fu, it's very demanding, disciplined, athletic, and a whole lot of fun. So I found a link online - unexpectedly - regarding a program where you can go to China and train in Wushu for as short a time as 4 weeks and as long a time as 1 year - and you can also do their language program to learn Mandarin. So i was thinking... maybe during my questionable six months... maybe I could spend a semester in China training in Wushu and learning Mandarin. I was checking out the prices - and it will cost the same or less to go to China for a semester as it will cost for one semester at UIUC. Same price! That's a sweet deal! So... I'm sincerely considering this. I don't know where I would get the money to do this -- but wow, if I could, I would really really love it.

Here's the website I found, it has prices and everything if you want to take a look:
http://www.ebt-edu.com/martialarts.htm

So we'll see about that.

When that time ends - I will be going to a YWAM DTS. YWAM is an international missions program. DTS stands for Discipleship Training School. It's a six month program that involves training at one of their schools for 3 months and going on a missionary trip for 3 months afterward. They have school locations all over the world - and I want to pick one that will not be in East Asia, since I'm sure I want to end up there. I want to taste a different part of the world to see if I like it. I'm thinking perhaps Madagascar or something, that sounds interesting. Or else, somewhere in South America, maybe. I'm still thinking about it.

That's the plan for my first year. Here's the YWAM website, if you want to learn more about the organization and about the DTS program: http://www.ywam.org/

After my first year, I will either go back to school (my mom gave me a convincing reason to consider this option *sigh*) or I will work for a year (as I originally planned) at a Private Christian School Instructor until I pay off some debt.

That's the rough lay-out of my future. Please comment, let me know what you think! I need some wisdom... and support... and criticism... whatever you've got.

Thanks!
~Christopher