The past few days have had some real emotional highs and
lows for me, so I thought I’d try something different for this blog post and
talk about how I’m feeling about my placement and the future.
When I finally found out where I’d be working, I was of
course really excited. My last blog post explains that. But I have
to be honest, starting my last “academic” term of my undergrad and hearing the experiences
of graduating INDEV students made me nervous. Although I know I’m going to
love my placement, the sudden realization that I’m leaving in less than 4
months really hit me hard this week. There’s just so much to think about and so
much to do before I go! And I think the part I’m most nervous for is those
first few weeks once I get to Vietnam. Culture and language shock is definitely
going to be a reality. I guess all I can do is embrace the fear and have the
confidence in myself. Talking to students who just got back from placement was
a bit of information overload, but what I really took away from them is that my
experience will be what I make it out to be. So I’ve decided to stay positive
and take advantage of every opportunity I have while on placement.
Another thing that’s got me thinking about my future is an
assignment in one of my classes to write a “personal mandate”, which is
basically a statement about your values/beliefs that’s supposed to help guide
your decision making. It’s such a weird exercise to try and analyze what you
think you believe in and your personal goals! So far, I’ve determined that I
value constant learning and sustainability… which comes in handy in the dynamic
field of development. I also determined that a goal of mine is to contribute to
my placement organization’s research on their climate change projects. My other
goal is to get into grad school at Waterloo for Planning… which is a something
I’m going to have to start working on now (another one of the reality checks I
got this week).
So as scary as the future might be, I’m excited to see what
it has in store for me. Bring it on world, cause I’m ready for you!
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