Six Sides

When I was little, my mama used to say the she had three sides, one for each of her daughters: a right, a left, and a lap. I think it was her way of saying she's always there for all three of us, like she's able to be in more than one places at once. But what happens when you need more than three sides because you want to be in more than three places at the same time?

This weekend, I spent new year's in Birmingham with a few of my friends. All of us graduated this year, meaning we all went in different directions. I realized this weekend that I had successfully avoided the problem of where I'm going to spend my first years after college; don't you just love year long internship. But then it dawned on me that in 8 months I'll be moving somewhere with a real job, unless something truly tragic happens. Here are a few of my choices and the pros to them:

Atlanta
- I could live with my sisters, which would be fun and probably a surprise a minute. (my sisters and I get along surprisingly well) Atlanta would have more opportunities to see more interesting things and closer to the CDC, which would be my dream job location.

LaGrange/ Columbus
- I would probably rent an apartment even though it's still home. My family is here and my best friend (even though she does want to move at some point in time.) Cynthia would be the biggest pull for this one. And the place you do your internship usually does offer you a job (watch that comment come to bite me later)

Mobile
- I have a lot of camp friends down in this area. I would love to get involved with the youth in the church in Mobile, since I was their camp counselor or at least their lifeguard for a lot of summers. My grandparents are also in Mobile.

Birmingham
- I have liked the city ever since I first went there four years ago. I like that it's a city but there's still a lot of trees so it doesn't look so big. And I love the mountains. I also have a lot of friends from Auburn that now live in Birmingham, and I loved hanging out with them so much this weekend.

Somewhere more north
- I've always wanted to live somewhere where it snows. And if I go to Baltimore or D.C. I'd bee closer to getting to a Blood Banking program with John Hopkins or the NIH. And I really want to get my SBB (unless that changes in the next 6 months)

A traveling Job
- I'd like to travel and it would be a good time to do it before I get settled and while I'm still young. Much to my parent's dismay, I'm sure, I'd love to travel over-seas with something like the Peace Corp. or just something really neat.

But I think I'm ready to face this decision now, more than I was four months ago. But I guess the first step would be to start applying for jobs. And I guess well find out which side wins out in 8 months if not sooner.

Oak Trees In the Ocean

For the past month, I have been reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Taking into consideration that I'm a slower reader and only read when I was in bed, I recently got through the part where the John Galt Line made it's first departure. Up to the point the entire country seemed to just be giving up and giving into the powers that are in charge and never really succeeding at anything; Except for Dagny Taggart who has brought the family train company from lack of destruction. She persevered through all of the doubt and dismay and all around destruction.

It just so happened that as I was reading this part of Atlas Shrugged, where Dagny succeeded and proved her brother and many others wrong, when I made a trip to Pass Christian, Mississippi to help with the rebuilding from the destruction of Katrina. The situation reminded my of Atlas Shrugged. So many people are in dismay about the storms and don't know what to do next with the rebuilding. Many are at the point of just giving up and never trying to rebuild there beautiful city. I've often heard that they just shouldn't build down on the coast (which I probably agreed with until this trip). But even though there's a lot of people willing to give up, there are still a few that are determined to work to rebuild their beautiful city. It made me wonder what this world would be more like the Dagny Taggart's on the Gulf Coast that are striving to succeed at something that many others say is impossible. And, yes, much like the long time that it took me to read the 100 pages about building the railroad, rebuilding the towns in Mississippi and Louisiana will not be a short process and may even take years to accomplish, but it can be done.