The Difficult Decision...

Within the month of December 2009 came a great and difficult decision for me. I had finally found a school and one of the closest ones in a beautiful state (one I eventually plan to live in) that actually offered my major...Archaeology. It's been my dream career since I was 10 years old.


I prayed so hard to be accepted to Penn State after being rejected and misunderstood repeatedly by the College of Wooster in central Ohio simply because my transcripts didn't arrive on time after many attempts due to faults between my previous college and Wooster. Within this time of after Wooster before Penn State I thought about settling for my second favorite career...a translator for the U.S. Navy. This would be my second attempt to join the U.S. Navy as I was rejected for knee surgery and asthma without a waiver. This time I came with a waiver and a better test score but in the end I also turned it down despite it's benefits and promise of travel for the big risk of being away from family for too long during sea duty and training.

After being accepted to Penn State University, a dream come true Big Ten school, I ultimately had to let it go. It came down to the fact that no matter the length I attended I would always be paying out-of-state tuition that I'd have to take out a high interest private loan that because of our financial credentials required a co-signer. As neither of us were employed, jobs to come were unforeseeable and while our credit was lacking I didn't want to ask my parents to put that risk on their shoulders, especially after all the help they'd already given that we'd never be able to pay back in a lifetime.


The night the decision fell on me was after Nathan asked me how we were going to do it once again. Before the answers were easy...we just will. I prayed so hard to get into that school and worked so hard to try to get things to come together. In two months time of ardent searching for a job and a well-priced apartment in a college town with a housing crisis the outcome looked bleak. That night I broke down in tears and I knew what had to be done. Ending up with over $100,000 in debt without the option of graduate school and having to rely on loan money to pay the rent was just too much...it was too rocky of a foundation and too likely to fail. That night I went to sleep after praying about the decision, praying that I wouldn't wake up the next morning feeling I'd made a mistake.


The day after the decision we were given the address to our would-be apartment on campus and soon after a call came with information about the pre-school my daughter would've soon attended. There was just a wince of regret for that and the fact that my co-workers had just given me money and a card to help me on this grand road to follow my dreams and that money was used to get to Pennsylvania. The regret and guilt feelings I expected to come never did but I immediately set to work trying to find another path to the same goal.



I didn't have to go to a big and beautiful University in the mountains of Pennsylvania to become and archaeologist. Instead I will be going to the University of Toledo (an hour commute from home) for Anthropology and I start monday. Archaeology is a sub-category for Anthropology and many employers in that field will hire archaeologists with an anthropology degree. It's not as focused on the physical work as a major in archaeology would be but there are field schools for that which means traveling and I have a love for traveling like no other hobby.



This dream WILL come true and my family is by my side and fully supportive...what more could I ask for...Thank you Lord for providing another way. I was just too stubborn to accept it before.



Despite my wallet being lost and my blackberry phone destroyed, we came away from the Pennsylvania trip having been on a much-needed and beautiful vacation with pictures and memories that will hopefully pull us back to Pennsylvania again some day. Thank you to my co-workers and my parents for their added money to get us there.



As for Pennsylvania we shall meet again...