Your remaining classes will also go very quickly, and graduation will be here before you know it. As A DeVry student, you have an amazing Career Services department supporting you. Be sure to check out the Career Services website to find out everything that is available to you. You can also watch this video to learn more about the services.
For now, let's take one last opportunity to think about where we have been and where we are going. To start our final discussion, think big. Share with the class where you are now in terms of your education, your personal life, and your career. Where do you see yourself in these same areas five years from now? Ten years? At the end of your life, what do you hope to have accomplished?
PRESENT:
Education:
Well, I'm here. That's saying a lot, considering that this year has been very difficult for me, to put it mildly. Earlier this year, I honestly did not see how I would make it through school for the rest of the year, and I would get sick to my stomach at the thought - but now, it's August, and I may be hanging in there by a thread, but I'm hanging in there. I can't exactly say that this is where I want to be, but considering my circumstances -- I'm grateful to still be here.
Personal Life:
Hah, well -- in January of this year, I was disowned by my family for leaving their religion, and I have not seen my immediate family -- with exception of my older sister -- for going on nine months now. For the first couple of months, my father was threatened with divorce if he ever so much as deliberately saw me; my mother and my identical twin sister would harass me with one of my aunts and cousins; my mother threatened to kill herself with pills over the stress my 'leaving the true religion' caused her; I was threatened to be thrown out into the street by my grandmother, who's couch I currently live on, also because I was no longer of her religion; last, but not least - in the religion I grew up with, you're forbidden to make any friends on the outside ['in the world' is the term used], so when I was disowned, I was left with no social support whatsoever. If it were not for my older sister, I know that I would not have managed to stay in school. As I mentioned earlier, I currently live with my elderly, very disabled, and extremely anxious grandmother (I'm also pretty sure she's becoming senile; I want her to go to the doctor about this) who is currently in the process of filing for bankruptcy -- with no car and, for the first seven months, I had no computer, as well. Rain or horrid heat, I would walk several blocks both ways, every single day, to use the computer at the library. I've been unemployed for over a year now -- most jobs seem to be in L.A. or Irvine, it seems. As I stated in the Education segment -- I can't exactly say that this is where I want to be, but -- surely, however slowly -- it's all getting somewhere, and I have a goal that I am heading towards with the velocity of a runaway freight train. I'm not staying in this place [both literally and figuratively].
Career:
As I've stated in the previous segment, I have been unemployed since last April -- I worked at Starbucks for going on four years. I've been walking through the streets of Whittier and taking buses to surrounding areas, banging down doors practically for work, but it's extremely difficult right now. Keep your fingers crossed for me, and if you hear of anything in the Uptown Whittier area especially, do let me know!! Now, to end this segment -- no, this is not where I want to be at all right now, but that will change.
FIVE YEARS FROM NOW:
I see myself married to the man I'm in love with, and living in New England. I plan to be finishing school right about then [with a Master's]. I see myself living a simple life, and happy that way. I try not to plan too far ahead into the future, but this is the general idea of what I want in my life.
TEN YEARS FROM NOW:
I see myself happily working off my degree -- I don't see myself making "mega-bucks", but I see myself being in an okay place, and that is just perfect for me. I see myself as still married, and still living a simple life -- after the complicated, overly-dramatic, anxiety-ridden, downright depressing, awkward, and difficult transition that I've had trying to fit in somewhere as an adult -- the way I see it: the simpler, the better. Assuming that everything was just smooth-sailing at this point, than I can see myself possibly wanting a child at this time. That's still unclear to me, though. I don't like to plan this far ahead. We'll wait and see what actually happens.
AT THE END OF MY LIFE:
I hope to have made all of my hard work worth it -- that all of my blood, sweat, tears, labor, stress, heartache, pain, sacrifices: it was all worth it, and by "worth it", I mean that in spite of it all -- in spite of all of the ugliness and complications of life -- I managed to create and to become a part of something very beautiful; that, not only was I happy, but I inspired others to do the necessary labors in order to create their own path, and to do it all with the goal in mind of making life wonderful -- not just for yourself, but for those that you love; and once you have that love in your life, to protect it -- down to your tooth and nail -- and, as far as it depends on you, to not ever let it go. Don't ever take it for granted. Don't ever push it away. Don't let petty differences and misunderstandings take that away from you. Life only gives you so many second chances, so use your opportunities as wisely as you can.
And don't just build a wonderful life -- maintain a wonderful life.
A career is a very critical part of my life, of course, that goes without saying -- but it's not my end-all, be-all. However much I may enjoy graphic design, it is simply a necessary means to an end. Through my work [career work], I want to send a message that's even bigger than just making money.
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