“What are you doing with your life after you graduate?”
I can’t count on my hands how many times that question has been asked of me in the recent weeks, as my senior year draws closer and closer to an end. I’m trying to find a job, figure out where I’m going to live, if my rapscallion of a dog can live with me (spoiler alert: my French bulldog named Napoleon is absolutely living with me), and what would be the best fit for grad school for me.
Whoa, wait, back it up a second, Matthew. Grad school?! Wasn’t four years of higher education enough for you?
No, dear reader, four years is nowhere near enough education for me.
As the saying goes, we never stop learning new things as our lives go on. Yet most people may burn out of classroom education after earning a Bachelor’s degree. The thing is though, I have a major long-term goal: I want to eventually teach journalism at a university.
I do have a plan in my head about how I want this all to play out, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, I know God will guide me on the right path. I’ve narrowed my prospects down to four different programs for a Master of Arts degree, and I’m trying to find a job in the field that will help me pay for grad school in addition to rent, gas, food, and the myriad of other little expenses I must pay in order to be a fully functioning adult. I’ve kicked into high gear studying for the GRE (and I’m still struggling with all of the math, no surprise there).
So what exactly is the plan? I’d go ahead and get my M.A. while working, then take a year or two off to rest my brain. After that, I’d enter a doctoral program to earn my Ph.D. and then become a tenure-track professor, hopefully sooner than later. Of course, as mentioned before, God’s final say is going to determine what happens next. But as of now, I feel like He wants me doing this in my life.
So maybe someday, I’ll end up teaching one of your children at whatever university I end up. Maybe I can teach your child about the Watergate scandal or the advent of online television. Or maybe they’ll take a class with me and learn about what they can and can’t do as a reporter.
One thing I can tell you for sure: I’m going to be one heck of a professor. If you know me well, you know that your future kids are in for the education of their lives with any class they have with me. We’ll have a wild ride filled with journalism, relevant topics, and maybe a few inside jokes.
In short, I plan on getting more education and eventually doing a lot of the educating, and you should absolutely have your kids take a class with me.
