Thoughts at the halfway mark (A lot of rambling)

We're nearly halfway done with our year of VSC. I should be slightly over halfway done with my hours at the end of the month. I've been at SFMC for 5 months-6 more remain. Many of us in the house are sending off applications to programs, updating resumes and performing job searches.

Personally, I'm up in the air in many ways. I've recently had the possibility of another year of volunteer service re-opened up when informed I can make loan payments on my private loans with my AmeriCorps Scholarship that I get from this year. Whether I want to do this for certain remains unclear at this point.

I do know that I will not be returning to VSC West for another year. It has been a great year, but I don't feel that I second year would benefit me personally in the way this year has. I've done a bit of searching for programs. I'm really open to possibilities regarding another year regarding where I serve and what I do there. I'd really like to do something completely different from anything I'll ever do again in my life.

At the same time, I would like to be able to be close to friends and family....or at least pulling an income that would support me visiting them without great financial difficulty. Plus, I'd like to establish myself as a young adult. I got some advice from a nurse who did years and years of work with the peace corps back in the 60s. She told me that she had a fantastic experience, but she missed out on her young adulthood. When she returned to the states (from Southeast Asia) all of her friends were married and with children. I don't believe another year of service would set me back greatly, but it does make me think and that is worth something.

I've also thought about the fact that if I did do another year of service I would be done when I'm 24. That is so young and I'll have plenty of years to establish myself as a young adult, get a job and start....the rest of my life. Well, at least until I decide to go to grad school, but that is another story entirely.

Then there is the question of where do I apply for jobs if I go that route? Minneapolis? MN? Midwest? Elsewhere? I think I'll conduct a search similar to what I did last spring. Shooting for Minneapolis but open to other places. I may look into the Pacific Northwest. It's nice to know that I have family in the region. The east coast is less appealing for that reason.

It's nice to be able to put this thoughts done into words. I can come back to this in days, weeks and/or months and see how many thoughts have changed. Decisions, decisions....