 |
| oaks.nvg.org |
This is the post where I describe how my adventure, which you're about to witness, all came about. It started in October 2010 with a conversation with my friend K. I had just taken the LSAT (LSAT stands for Law School Admission Test) and knew it went horribly. The LSAT is a creature that can knock you down on your best of days, and after the chaos in my testing room my nerves were shot. The creature sensed this, and just devoured me. Knowing I did poorly, in part because of another person's fault (the test proctor), I wrote to LSAC (the LSAT people) and asked for a new test. They entertained my request, but would only allow it if I cancelled my October scores. The next available testing date was December 2010 and considering most law schools want you to apply before this test date, I came to the realization that I would need to take a year off between undergrad and post-graduate work. My life soon became enveloped with just one question, what am I going to do with this year off? So I approached my long-time friend K one night with this question. Mind you this night was the product of a day filled with an eight hour study binge, numerous coffee/tea breaks, countless calories consumed, and frustration from people talking in the stack next to ours. [note: do not talk on your cellphone in a library, walk outside. No one NEEDS to talk on their cellphones, in an extremely quiet room, during exams week!] We came to the conclusion after a lengthy conversation, filled with many ideas, in the cold, on the streets of Ann Arbor, that I should teach English abroad in a Spanish speaking country. So begins a new question of what program?
When I first discussed the idea of teaching abroad, with K, I wasn't sure of where to study. I knew that I wanted to make this year abroad both an exciting experience and one that would make me more marketable, for the future. Since I am leaning towards immigration law, I knew that I wanted to work in a Spanish speaking country, so that I could become fluent in the language and use this to my advantage. K also pointed me towards the
UM international center website, which presented a number of opportunities for me to peruse. The
North American Language and Cultural Assistants in Spain program, sponsored by the Spanish government, fit the best into my timeline for work and my desires for my year abroad. I submitted my application November 9th, 2010 with an instricta number of 198. I'll explain the instricta number more in a later post, but essentially it means that I was the 198th person to submit an application. Completing my application took many more steps, again I'll explain later, but I was chosen for the program on March 20th, 2011 and accepted a position in the community of Madrid on March 22nd, 2011.
So here I am now. My visa is nearly in hand (also another story) and my plane ticket is booked; I am leaving Sept 21st and arriving the next day in Madrid. And I think, it all started with a failed LSAT attempt (don't worry I took it again and outperformed my best practice tests) and a post-caffeine/post-sugar/post-study binge filled day. If only all of life's big questions were that easy...
